Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin’s California-based charity, Arc of Justice, has been ordered to cease operations by the California attorney general’s office, adding another problem for a network of activist organizations already facing scrutiny over its finances and connections to wealthy political benefactor Neville Roy Singham.
And this particular enforcement action didn’t come from a conservative attorney general looking for an opportunity to target a left-wing organization. It came under California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a progressive Democrat.
According to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, Arc of Justice was ordered to stop operating after failing to file required tax documents for three consecutive years.
That would be a significant compliance problem by itself.
Then there is the money.
The Free Beacon reported that more than $51 million in assets associated with the organization remain unaccounted for in the required filings, leaving substantial questions about what happened to the foundation’s finances during the period in which those documents were not submitted.
Arc of Justice was established by Benjamin and has provided millions of dollars to Code Pink and other progressive activist organizations. That makes its financial problems particularly interesting because of the larger network surrounding Code Pink and Singham.
Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans is married to Singham, an American technology entrepreneur now based in Shanghai who has poured substantial sums into left-wing organizations.
CBS News previously reported that Singham’s funding has accounted for as much as one-quarter of Code Pink’s operations.
Singham has also reportedly come under federal investigation over allegations involving money moved through nonprofit organizations to Chinese entities and representations made on tax filings. Those allegations remain just that unless prosecutors establish otherwise, but the combination of federal scrutiny and California’s action against Arc of Justice puts renewed attention on how money travels through this collection of organizations.
Code Pink certainly isn’t an obscure recipient.
Its activists have repeatedly disrupted congressional hearings and other government proceedings, frequently over Israel and the war in Gaza. The organization has accused Israel of genocide and has also attracted controversy through its contacts and positions involving Cuba, Venezuela and China.
Critics have been particularly interested in the group’s China positions because of Singham’s residence in Shanghai and his financial connections to organizations within the same activist network.
Now former Treasury Department adviser Sam Lyman argues that Arc of Justice’s troubles should be viewed as part of that larger financial picture.
“For years, Neville Singham and his associates have been playing financial shell games across a series of U.S.-based nonprofits,” Lyman told the Free Beacon.
“The goal is to fund extremist causes that undermine American sovereignty by using the 501(c)(3) legal structure as a shield,” he continued. “But the scheme is starting to unravel, and Medea Benjamin’s Arc of Justice is the latest example.”
That’s Lyman’s characterization, and proving an illegal financial scheme would require considerably more than pointing to missing tax filings or political relationships. But California’s action does create concrete questions that Arc of Justice will presumably have to answer.
Failing to file taxes for three consecutive years isn’t a matter of political ideology.
Neither is accounting for tens of millions of dollars in assets.
And those questions become considerably more consequential when the organization involved has distributed money to politically active groups while people within its orbit are already attracting attention from federal investigators.
The Treasury Department has also reportedly taken notice of the broader Singham network, raising the possibility that California’s action won’t be the end of the scrutiny.
Whether that ultimately produces federal charges or enforcement against any organization remains to be seen. A regulatory shutdown should not be confused with proof of every allegation surrounding Singham, Code Pink or their associated groups.
But Arc of Justice now has a problem that cannot simply be dismissed as criticism from political opponents.
California itself ordered the charity to stop operating.
