Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he is probing the Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund to determine if their funding of programs in China violated nonprofit tax rules.
Grassley wrote formal letters to the three organizations last month saying that “according to recent reports, [your organizations], through grants and direct payments, have funded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its allies,” adding, “I am writing today to ask you whether these reports are true or not and, if true, how your organization’s conduct comports with 501(c)(3) requirements.”
The reports he referenced were largely from conservative publications: the Washington Examiner, the Free Beacon, and the Daily Caller. The letters also cite reports from the Chinese government-backed Global Times and Forbes.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
