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See also: [[Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science|Richard Dawkins's Foundation and an embezzlement allegation]] and [[Atheist nonprofit scandals]]
See also: [[Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science|Richard Dawkins's Foundation and an embezzlement allegation]] and [[Atheist nonprofit scandals]]
== Embezzlement allegation ==
[[File:Richard Dawkins photo.jpg|alt=Richard Dawkins|thumbnail|200px|left|The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science had a scandal related to an embezzlement allegation. See: [[Atheist nonprofit scandals]] ]]
''See also:'' [[Atheist nonprofit scandals]]
''The Independent'' wrote about the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science:
{{cquote|The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, has filed four lawsuits in a Californian court alleging that Mr Timonen, who ran its online operation in America, stole $375,000 (£239,000) over three years. It is claiming $950,000 in damages, while Mr Dawkins is suing him for $14,000 owed to him personally. Mr Timonen strongly denies the allegations.
In the 18-page complaint filed in a Los Angeles court, the foundation claims that Mr Timonen said the website he was running was just "squeaking by," making only $30,000 in three years, when in fact it was grossing 10 times that sum. The charity alleges that Mr Timonen pocketed 92 per cent of the money generated by the store, with his girlfriend spending $100,000 of the charity's money on upgrading her home before putting it on the market.
The funds apparently came on top of Mr Timomen's pay – of $278,750 over three-and-a-half years (£50,000 a year) – which legal documents filed by the foundation describe as "exceedingly generous and well above-market for someone of Timomen's age and experience...<ref>[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/an-ungodly-row-dawkins-sues-his-disciple-2115632.html An ungodly row: Dawkins sues his disciple]</ref>}}
Atheist [[Hemant Mehta]] reported in 2011 that Dawkins ended his legal actions against Mr. Timonen.<ref>[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2011/07/24/richard-dawkins-drops-his-lawsuit-against-former-employee/ Richard Dawkins Drops His Lawsuit Against Former Employee]</ref>
David Gorski at Scienceblogs wrote about this matter:
{{cquote|Timonen has responded. Although I find his denial self-serving, I do find it odd that there have been no arrests. After all, embezzlement is a criminal offense. If I ran a charitable organization and discovered that an employee had embezzled close to $1 million, I’d have called the police, not the lawyers. Something more than meets the eye appears to be going on here.
In any case, this makes me wonder: What is it about rationalist/skeptic groups that make them seemingly have such a hard time running their organizations well from a financial standpoint? After all, just a couple of months ago the Center for Inquiry (CFI) sent out letters desperately begging for more contributions. The reason was that CFI had one large benefactor whose yearly contribution funded approximately 20-25% of the yearly CFI budget. As clueless as I may be about finances, even I know that you don’t use such donations to run the operating expenses of an organization, because you can’t count on them from year to year and it’s too big a chunk. You use this money for special short-term projects and a rainy day fund. Not surprisingly, when this mysterious donor stopped donating earlier this year, suddently CFI was in deep doo-doo from a financial standpoint, prompting the desperate plea for donations and deep budget cuts. I realize that the down economy has played havoc with many nonprofit and charitable organizations, but these issues with skeptical organizations seem to go beyond just that.<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/10/24/richard-dawkins-sues-josh-timonen/ Richard Dawkins sues Josh Timonen], Posted by David Gorski on October 24, 2010</ref>}}
== See also ==
== See also ==