Back in late September, the National Diversity Council (NDC) — a major nonprofit specializing in DEI, though the powers that be dubbed it “diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging” (DEIB) — announced that it would be closing its doors and dissolving the organization as quickly as possible. On March 17, the NDC officially filed for bankruptcy.

At the time, the NDC gave this reason for its demise: “The Board has not made this decision lightly; however, the downturn in corporate and philanthropic support did not leave a viable path forward.”

While on its face, this might seem like a palatable reason for a 501(c)(3) to be shutting down, there is actually a much darker and more twisted reason behind NDC’s collapse. In a story exposed by Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak, it seems that three employees had decided to make the NDC their personal piggy bank.

The NDC board has filed a lawsuit alleging that its founder R. Dennis Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer Ángeles Valenciano, and Chief Financial Officer Jason deGroot siphoned off a significant amount of unearned wages and donor funds, as well as used the NDC to set up competitive organizations to garner more paychecks.

Kennedy purportedly set up a fake website identical to NDC’s and was pulling in donor funds that way as well. This fake website is the only one still up, and it’s still advertising for a conference in April and lists former President Bill Clinton as a keynote speaker.

“At some point during his relationship with NDC,” according to the lawsuit, “Kennedy covertly began a scheme to utilize NDC’s trademarks, reputation, and contacts to establish and build separate for-profit and non-profit organizations designed to compete with NDC and personally benefit Kennedy — all while being compensated by NDC.”

DeGroot and Valenciano made the board suspicious when they demanded exorbitant back pay to the tune of $3 million. This was on top of getting $1 million in donor funds and their other salaries from the organizations that Kennedy set up. The Daily Wire has found eight other entities that Kennedy established as fronts for his ventures.

When the board began to investigate this suspicious activity, since there was nothing to justify the back pay, Kennedy allegedly directed deGroot to shut down the NDC. According to emails submitted as evidence, deGroot canceled lucrative events, costing the nonprofit corporate sponsorships and cutting off a vital revenue stream.

The board suspended Kennedy, deGroot, and Valenciano in January 2023 while investigating, but the conspiracy grew deeper after that. Kennedy had already recruited the IT person, Jason Lee, who was instructed by the board to lock the trio out of the system. He instead aided Kennedy, recovering emails and NDC documents necessary to continue his enrichment scheme.

By February 2023, this C-suite trio chose to resign rather than participate in an investigation.

This is not the first time the board has had to wrestle with an employee for a similar scheme. The NDC is still paying legal fees after discovering that its former Chief Talent & Diversity Officer, Carmen Michelle Carter, a professor at Strayer University, orchestrated an enrichment scheme by having a company she consulted for pay her directly instead of the NDC.

While one would hope that the National Diversity Council shutting its doors is just another indication that this particular branch of the Left’s racial grift is over, it’s certainly ironic that the “diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging” nonprofit had to deal with executives who care only about getting ahead financially.

Can we say it’s all that surprising? No. These grifters saw just how much money there was for the taking after the post-George Floyd shakedown. After all, such self-enrichment worked out great for former BLM head Patrisse Cullors, and it seems to be working for Ibram X. Kendi.

This particular case is ongoing, but if the allegations are true, the NDC was brought down by greedy executives and not solely by the cultural shift away from DEI.