State AG: PipeVine Should be Taken Over
The state attorney general´s office is poised to ask a San Francisco judge today to appoint a bankruptcy trustee to take control of PipeVine. That´s the donation processing agency that has admitted skimming millions of dollars from gifts to cover operating costs.
A San Francisco County Superior Court judge will be asked to dissolve the non-profit and appoint a certified bankruptcy trustee or set a hearing. That´s according to a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
About $3 million in unprocessed donations taken in by PipeVine is frozen in bank accounts. Lockyer´s office is in a hurry to get those funds to charities.
Investigators discovered that since July 1, 2000, roughly $2 million in large checks to charities, each for more than $10,000 were never cashed and likely were never delivered.
