November 1, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
A conservative Delaware think tank has accused one of its major donors and three former executives of stealing a confidential fund-raising database and internal documents as part of a covert effort to start a rival organization. All four people deny the charges.
Intercollegiate Studies Institute, in Wilmington, also charges the donor — the entrepreneur Jack Miller — with reneging on pledges totaling nearly $1.9-million, according to legal documents.
Also named in the lawsuit are the three former executives, all of whom now hold positions with the rival group, the Jack Miller Center, in Philadelphia: Michael Ratliff, the center’s president, and Michael Andrews and Michael Deshaies, who are both vice presidents.
Mr. Miller, the founder of an office-supply company that was purchased by Staples in 1998, had been a substantial donor to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, pledging to give the think tank $3-million in 2007 and 2008. Slightly more than $1-million of that total has been paid.
Gifts Promised
The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Miller had previously agreed to provide $400,000 a year to create a program at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute — the Jack Miller Center for the Teaching of America’s Founding Principles — which supported American-history education efforts at colleges.
In addition, the lawsuit alleges that as the center grew, Mr. Miller became unhappy that he had to “share credit” for Intercollegiate Studies Institute projects. As a result of that unhappiness, according to the lawsuit, he decided this fall to stop giving money to the Jack Miller Center and recruited the three think-tank executives to create a spinoff group with the same mission.
While the three executives were still employed by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the lawsuit says, they took several pieces of proprietary information, including data on donors and prospective donors, as well as a “highly sensitive, confidential database of faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States who are sympathetic to ISI’s claims.” The lawsuit also alleges that the executives took confidential fund-raising proposals.
All three were fired by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute on September 27.
Following their departure, the lawsuit charges, Mr. Miller threatened to sue the think tank to recover money he had donated and asserted that the organization had “misappropriated and mismanaged funds.”
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute denied those allegations.
Mr. Ratliff, meanwhile, said he and the others who are identified in the lawsuit dispute its claims.
“This suit is without merit and I want the lawyers to be able to do the job without discussion getting in the way,” he said.
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute said it wants all the documents returned and wants Mr. Miller to honor his $1.5-million pledge.
