Durham ‘billionaire’ one of 2 charged in alleged nonprofit scheme
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- Durham police have charged two nonprofit executives with felony fraud and conspiracy.
- Court filings allege unpaid wages and abruptly canceled youth programs nationwide.
- Investigations by a local TV station have challenged the foundation’s legitimacy and founder’s self-made image.
A Durham businessman and his company’s chief financial officer are facing criminal charges after allegedly failing to pay multiple employees, police announced Wednesday.
Courtney Jordan, 37, of Durham is the founder of the Courtney Jordan Foundation, which was created in 2011. Jordan and Nicholas Gallardo, the foundation’s CFO, are each charged with obtaining property by false pretenses and felony conspiracy, Durham police said in a news release.
The pair have been involved in a number of legal complaints in recent months, first reported by WRAL, which confirmed the N.C. Department of Labor and the Durham Police Department were both investigating the foundation in July.
A civil suit filed against Jordan, Gallardo, the foundation and two of its other executive employees last month alleges at least seven employees have not been paid since June. Those employees were all hired to assist with purported efforts to create “day camps and community centers for underprivileged children” in Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges the foundation abruptly canceled two day camps three days before they were set to begin operations, prompting several employees to quit, while others were fired for unspecified reasons. More than a month after being filed, the suit has yet to be served to most of the defendants, including Jordan and Gallardo, because process servers have been unable to locate them, court records show.
Jordan and Gallardo were previously involved in controversy in Siler City three years ago, when their nonprofit, StartUp Siler, failed to produce any meaningful work, The Chatham News + Record reported.
When a WRAL reporter examined the Courtney Jordan Foundation’s website, she discovered the site was using images from Duke Energy, Durham County, the city of Durham and Duke University and purported quotes from former Durham Mayor Bill Bell, former U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and state Rep. Mickey Michaux without permission. The city quickly issued a cease-and-desist to the foundation, WRAL reported.
Jordan’s online presence is padded with accolades, including a Wikigenius page describing him as a “billionaire entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist” and a company website claiming to have offices around the world. But when WRAL investigated those claims, they fell flat, the TV station reported last month.
Court records indicate neither Jordan nor Gallardo had been arrested as of Wednesday afternoon. Their arrest warrants were not publicly available because they had not been served.
