A federal court has sentenced a major Democratic fundraiser and donor to prison for stealing money from his taxpayer-funded nonprofit.
Dixon Slingerland led the Youth Policy Institute, a federally funded nonprofit aimed at reducing poverty in Los Angeles, from 1996 to 2019 and served as a fundraiser for former President Barack Obama and a former Democratic mayor of Los Angeles.
Slingerland used his organization’s resources to cover his property taxes, pay for a $6,000 dinner in New York City, hire an $11,000 private tutor and buy nearly $2,000 worth of computer software and hardware, according to a Tuesday news release from the Justice Department.
Slingerland was sentenced to six months in prison, ordered to pay $750,470 in fines and given 200 hours of community service.
The DOJ said Slingerland misappropriated $600,000 in grant funding in total. The bulk of YPI’s funding came from the federal government, according to Slingerland’s plea agreement.
YPI received tens of millions of dollars in federal funding between 2006 and 2019, much of it during the Obama administration.
The New York Times included Slingerland on a list of Obama’s largest fundraisers. He raised over $740,000 for Obama between 2007 and 2012, according to the Times.
Slingerland made multiple trips to the White House while Obama was in office, the Los Angeles Times reported.
He was also heavily involved in political fundraising in Los Angeles, co-hosting at least six fundraising events in the city for former Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti, according to another Los Angeles Times report.
Slingerland donated a significant amount of money to Democratic causes. He gave more than $100,000 to Democratic candidates and committees between 2006 and 2020, according to a Federal Election Commission database.
As president of YPI, Slingerland was the personal guarantor of the organization’s credit card and had the authority to sign checks using the organization’s funds, according to the DOJ. He brought in a salary of nearly $400,000 as the head of YPI, tax documents show.
The DOJ told the Daily Caller News Foundation that it had no further comment.
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