Telugu360 has reported extensively and exclusively about the “fake memberships” in TANA. In fact, our reporting on TANA’s Election facade has caused quite a dismay in NRI circles over the antics of TANA. TANA, which professes itself as non-profit organization to preserve and propagate Telugu culture, need to evaluate about incidents unravelling over the last few weeks. Telugu360 has learned that there are multiple law suits filed on TANA by some members in the TANA Board over the massive membership fraud and financial misappropriations in 2015 Detroit Conference.
Before we go into content of the lawsuit, here are the numbers at glance:
Till 2014 elections : TANA members: 6803
No of members just enrolled for 2014 elections: 3000
No of members enrolled for 2016 elections: 7750 ( New new members)
Total TANA members as of 03/19/2017 — 18,000
An average of $125 per voter has been paid in the form of gift cards to enroll these “new members”. Now that comes close to $1M expense by a TANA contestant. And this doesn’t even count the expenses the candidate is incurring on TV publicity, money paid to others in the organization.
Why does a top-post in a “service” organization cost $1-1.5M? Is it just for service?? Wouldn’t that money have been better utilized by doing actual service??
Lawsuit:
Telugu360 has reviewed the lawsuit filed in Circuit Court of Baltimore. Some of the main allegations in the lawsuit:
- Even though concerns were raised by some of the Board of Directors about the fraudulent activity in TANA memberships, the Defendants showed no interest in verification.
- A number of proofs were presented where people enrolled as ‘Married’ to get multiple votes when they are still single.
- MVC (Membership Verification Committe) assigned the task of verifying the members to a Chantilly, VA based company without getting approval from the Board. Even though some of the Board members asked repeatedly about the company doing the verifications, they were kept in dark.
- Even today, some Board members allege that whole Membership Verification Process was not done appropriately and MVC never disclosed the name of the firm in spite of multiple requests. $25,000 was paid to the Chantilly, VA based firm without any quality work.
- Plantiff’s also argue that the defendants failed to “exercise reasonable watchfulness over investments” and are fearful that new TANA Leadership elected with these “paid” membership will control all the decisions over the funds of TANA.
Considering the wide ranging allegations, the Plantiff’s argue that the Elections should be put on a hold until this is resolved.
More details about how $3M were misappropriated in 2015 Detroit Conference, soon
Observe the abnormal spike in 2014 and 2016
| Year | No of new Members |
|---|---|
| Prior to 2004 | 3476 |
| 2007 | 694 |
| 2008 | 1096 |
| 2009 | 126 |
| 2010 | 210 |
| 2011 | 135 |
| 2012 | 770 |
| 2013 | 296 |
| 2014 | 2932 |
| 2015 | 441 |
| 2016 | 7750 |
| 2017 | 81 |
| As of 03-19-2017 | 18007 |
Observe the abnormal spike in November
| Year | No of Members |
|---|---|
| Jan - 2016 | 18 |
| Feb - 2016 | 11 |
| Mar - 2016 | 11 |
| Apr - 2016 | 28 |
| May -2016 | 20 |
| Jun - 2016 | 54 |
| Jul - 2016 | 50 |
| Aug - 2016 | 26 |
| Sep - 2016 | 318 |
| Oct - 2016 | 548 |
| Nov - 2016 | 6537 |
| Dec - 2016 | 129 |
| 2016 Total | 7750 |
