Posted on 12/17/24
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - Dec. 17, 2024 - Liberal billionaire George Soros gave $250,000 to support the troubled Safe Streets program in Baltimore City, records obtained by Spotlight on Maryland show.
The Foundation to Promote Open Society, a Soros philanthropy group, gave $250,000 to the Fund for Educational Excellence (FFEE) in 2019 to “enhance the reach, knowledge and skills of Safe Street staff to more effectively and efficiently engage the community in restoration, and enhance the effectiveness of Safe Street’s violence prevention strategy.”
FFEE is one of the largest fiscal sponsors in Baltimore that works primarily on education advocacy, oftentimes with Baltimore City Public Schools. Fiscal sponsors help oversee the operations and finances of smaller non-profits, which allows the smaller non-profits to dodge filing tax forms.
Open Society Foundations fund largely liberal causes such as lenient bail reform, environmental regulations and drug harm reduction programs. Soros’s Open Society Institute operated in Baltimore for 25 years before closing its office in 2023. It was the only Open Society field office in the nation.
The Safe Streets program, which the mayor’s office describes as the “flagship gun violence reduction program” in Baltimore, has been plagued with scandals in recent years, as previously reported in a series of FOX45 News investigations.
Safe Streets aims to counter homicides in Baltimore by training “violence interrupters” in the community. However, Baltimore City Auditor Josh Pasch found this year that the program used hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for employee salaries without confirming whether those employees completed their daily tasks.
Another report this year from Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming found that MONSE may have used fake names for approved Safe Streets positions, some of which appeared to be spinoffs of Baltimore Ravens players, such as “Lemur Jackson” and “Merlin Humphrey.”
A Safe Streets supervisor faced criminal charges last year after his house was raided by the FBI. Federal and local law enforcement found narcotics packaging material and a handgun magazine with nine live rounds at the home of David Caldwell.
Federal authorities raided Safe Streets offices in 2010, 2015 and 2023. The 2010 raid was issued as federal authorities claimed the office was controlled by the Black Guerrilla Family gang, which has a history of street violence and drug trafficking.
Mayor Brandon Scott’s office, Open Society Foundations and FFEE did not respond to questions about how each group coordinated to spend the $250,000 grant for the Safe Streets program in 2019.
Open Society Foundations, along with other influential liberal philanthropy groups, sent millions of dollars in recent years to fiscal sponsors like FFEE in Baltimore, according to a previous Spotlight on Marylandinvestigation.
Open Society Foundations gave FFEE more than $1 million since 2016. One specific grant from Open Society Foundations to fiscal sponsor Fusion Partnerships appeared to help coordinate a trip for Scott to visit a drug consumption site in Baltimore, according to a Spotlight on Marylandinvestigation. Scott said this month he hopes to bring drug consumption sites to Baltimore in his second term.
The Baltimore City government sends taxpayer dollars to local fiscal sponsors through programs such as the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, as previously reported by Spotlight on Maryland.