Chapter 12 - THE BOARD VOTE
The independent audit concluded:
$2.8 million legitimate annual grantmaking remained strong.
But:
$74,000 related-party overmarket charges,
$28,400 duplicate billing,
$18,000 personal guesthouse use,
$9,400 questionable furnishings,
$31,000 of lake-property/event charges requiring reimbursement or reclassification.
No giant embezzlement.
No criminal empire.
Governance failures.
Conflict failures.
Personal use.
Then the animal-cruelty incident.
Board vote:
remove Margaret as chair.
Keep her as non-voting founder emerita for one year pending conduct review.
Appoint independent chair.
Require reimbursement:
$86,000 after negotiated adjustments.
Terminate Carter Estate Services pending rebid.
Margaret lost control.
Not everything.
She still had wealth.
Still had social connections.
Still had her house.
That made it hurt more.
May you like
She could not claim persecution ruined her life.
It simply removed the institution she had treated as an extension of herself.
