The legal activity swirling around MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell now includes an investigation into his charities by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
Documents filed in Ramsey County District Court last week show Attorney General Keith Ellison has been investigating three nonprofit corporations that list Lindell as president since last summer over potential violations of state charity law.
In August, the Attorney General’s Office served three civil investigative demands on the charities asking for “basic information about their charitable activities, governance, and finances.” The charities have not shared that information, according to a memo filed by Assistant Attorney General Chloe Raimey that asks the court to intervene and make the charities comply with the investigation.
Raimey alleges that public documents and evidence has uncovered conflicting financial transactions and a “lack of charitable activities that suggest at least some of the charities may be shams.”
The charities are the Lindell Foundation Inc., the Lindell Recovery Network, and Lindell Foundation Outreach Inc.
According to Guidestar, a database of nonprofits, Lindell Foundation Outreach’s purpose is to use the love of Jesus to “serve the poor — and others who are struggling" while the Lindell Recovery Network aims to “serve with the love of Jesus Christ those who are struggling with drug addiction.”
The three nonprofits have collectively taken in more than $1 million in contributions over the past six years — though the memo says they appear to have actually received hundreds of thousands dollars more — but they are not registered as soliciting charities with the Attorney General’s Office, a legal requirement in Minnesota.
The Lindell Foundation and Lindell Foundation Outreach appear to have more or less dissolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. And while both received “significant contributions” from donors, the Attorney General’s Office alleges they never “got off the ground or provided significant charitable services to Minnesotans.”