Watchdog Group Files Complaint Against American Conservative Union

Progressive advocacy group Accountable.US filed a complaint against the American Conservative Union Tuesday requesting that the Washington, D.C., attorney general investigate allegations of financial impropriety in the organization.

Members of a non-profit's board of directors have a legal responsibility to supervise financial oversight, a responsibility Accountable.US alleges the ACU board has failed at.

“The evidence strongly suggests that the Organization’s Board of Directors has repeatedly violated its fiduciary duties to the Organization by failing to adequately supervise its financial activities and by violating its bylaws,” the complaint states.

The American Conservative Union is best known for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a conference that hosts leading figures in the Republican movement.

“Accountable.us is a leftist dark money group that’s business model is to file complaints against effective conservatives who threaten their radical agenda,” said a CPAC representative in a statement to The Messenger. “Their attacks here are rehash of a leaked email discussing a former employee and his financial management responsibilities.”

The ACU’s treasurer, Bob Beauprez, resigned in May, saying that he could not “deliver a financial report at the upcoming board meeting with any confidence in the accuracy of the numbers” allegedly due to ACU President Matt Schlapp keeping him in the dark about expenditures, including funds that went to Schlapp’s legal defense in a sexual assault case.

A Republican staffer working on the Herschel Walker Senate campaign accused Schlapp of grabbing his genitals. The subsequent lawsuit allegedly led to a financial entanglement between Schlapp's legal defense and the ACU that led to Beauprez's resignation.

Schlapp denied any financial wrongdoing in an interview with The Messenger at the time and has denied the sexual assault allegations.

The Accountable.US complaint was brought on by Beauprez’s allegations, which were made public after his resignation letter was leaked.

“Mr. Beauprez alleges that he and the members of the Board did not adequately supervise the Organization’s payments for Mr. Schlapp’s legal defense,” says Accountable.US’ complaint. “Such flagrant neglect of their duty to oversee the “activities and affairs of the corporation” breached the Board’s statutory responsibility to govern the Organization with the care that a person in a like position would reasonably believe appropriate under similar circumstances.”

In a statement to The Messenger, Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig said: "Through the American Conservative Union, Matt Schlapp has made a name for himself by hosting a platform for extremists to socialize and strategize. For years, Schlapp has eroded our democracy by propping up these right-wing actors — and now, it looks like he might even be raiding his organization's funds to cover his personal bills. While Schlapp and the American Conservative Union may act like they're above the law, we're here to remind them that they aren't."

The CPAC representative also stated that a new treasurer had been appointed and that the “CPAC board also voted unanimously to express confidence in the leadership of Chairman Matt Schlapp.”