Hershey Trust Misspent Millions, Ex-Leader Claims

A former top official of the Hershey Trust, which runs the nation’s largest free private school for needy children, has accused the multibillion-dollar Pennsylvania charity of extensive financial misdeeds, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Robert Reese, former president of the trust, took the organization to court to force its board members to repay the charity $22-million, in large part for purchasing a golf course at well above market value.

Mr. Reese—who was reportedly voted off the trust’s main board Wednesday, one day after filing his petition in Dauphin County Orphans Court—also says board members used the charity’s assets to give themselves excessive pay and free rounds of golf, and violated federal securities regulations by mingling trust funds with other accounts.

A spokeswoman for the Hershey Trust told the Inquirer she had not seen the court filing.

The charity operates the Milton Hershey School, created by the candy company’s founder to offer free education to impoverished children.