Federal Newswire this week submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking communications between the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and representatives of Self-Help Ventures fund and affiliated entities.
The FOIA request follows an Oct. 29 Federal Newswire report that Christopher Allison, program manager for the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program at the CDFI Fund, is a former employee of Self-Help Ventures Fund, an affiliate of Durham, NC-based Self-Help Credit Union.
Both Self-Help Ventures Fund and Self-Help Credit Union have received over $502 million from the CDFI Fund.
“Let’s find out if Mr. Allison, through his various conflicts, has been self-helping himself to our money,” Edward “Coach” Weinhaus, managing partner at FOIASolved, a law firm with a multi-state presence focusing on FOIA-related litigation, told Federal Newswire.
The FOIA request seeks all communications—including written, electronic, and phone records—between any and all staff at the CDFI and any employees or representatives of Self-Help Credit Union, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, Self-Help Ventures Fund, and/or the Center for Responsible Lending from 2020 through the present.
Self-Help Ventures Fund is part of a network of nonprofit organizations run by Durham-based credit union CEO Martin Eakes that has received more than a half-billion in U.S. Treasury funds.
That’s according to an analysis of reports from the CDFI Fund previously reported by Durham Reporter.
The CDFI Fund was founded through an Act of Congress in 1994 to generate “economic growth and opportunity in some of our nation's most distressed communities.”
Eakes’ nonprofits include three credit unions, all under the "Self-Help” name, as well as a non-profit investment loan fund called Self-Help Ventures Fund.
Self-Help Ventures Fund alone received $277,989,503 in federal awards for 107 separate projects through just one of the CDFI programs, called the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program, between 2004 and 2020.
“The NMTC Program attracts private capital into low-income communities by permitting individual and corporate investors to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax in exchange for making equity investments in specialized financial intermediaries called Community Development Entities (CDEs),” according to the CDFI website. “The credit totals 39% of the original investment amount and is claimed over a period of seven years.”
In his current role at the CDFI Fund, Allison has been instrumental in developing NMTC application materials, implementing the evaluation process and making recommendations for tax credit allocations.
The fund, led by CEO Martin Eakes, focuses on providing equity investments through programs like the NMTC, which have attracted private capital to low-income areas.
The impact of Self-Help Ventures Fund's financial backing cannot be understated. Since its establishment in 1984, it has been pivotal in offering higher-risk business loans, real estate development financing and support for the home loan secondary market.
Allison did not respond to Federal Newswire's request for comment.
However, a communications representative for the CDFI Fund defended the agency's practices, referencing safeguards against conflicts of interest in regard to questions of potential conflicts of interest over Allison’s former role with Self-Help Ventures Fund.
The CDFI Fund communications staff highlighted the NMTC Program's multi-level competitive application review process and assured that adequate internal controls, compliance monitoring, and evaluation processes are in place to prevent conflicts and directed attention to publicly available documents on the CDFI Fund's website including those reiterating the fund’s commitment to transparency and integrity in the NMTC application process.
This included a document outlining that each reviewer is screened for potential conflicts of interest with applicants and is required to disclose any conflicts, signing a certification to that effect.
The CDFI Fund provided documentation on comprehensive compliance monitoring and evaluation procedures noting the fund also has a “Service Request” function that facilitates communication between those allocated and CDFI Fund staff, allowing for efficient tracking of inquiries and issues.
Earlier this year, the Durham Reporter submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for detailed information from the U.S. Treasury on the financial intermediaries benefiting from these substantial federal investments between 2004 and 2020.
