I am not sure why one of the largest charter chains in the U.S. is run by foreign nationals. But the Gulen chain has over 100 schools, which operate in many states under different names. One way to tell a Gulen school is that every member of the board is a Turkish man.
How did they proliferate? The old-fashioned way: By making friends in key places.
USA Today reports that Turkish men with modest incomes working for the Gulen chain made donations to members of Congress and Presidential candidates. If USA Today digs deeper, it will find contributions to state legislators as well as free trips to Turkey, all expenses paid.
USA TODAY has identified dozens of large campaign donations attributed to people with modest incomes, or from people who had little knowledge of to whom they had given, or from people who could not be located at all. All the donors appear to have ties to a Turkish religious movement named for its founder, Fethullah Gülen. USA TODAY reported last month that the movement has secretly funded more than 200 foreign trips for members of Congress and their staff.
In response to USA TODAY’s queries about suspicious donations she received on April 30, 2014, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. refunded $43,100 to the donors. “Out of an abundance of caution, the campaign has refunded the contributions in question,” said Ayotte campaign manager Jon Kohan. Ayotte also called on others who have received money from the same donors — including President Obama and Hillary Clinton — to return that money as well.
Some of the 19 Turkish Americans donating to Ayotte that day, who all lived outside New Hampshire, seemed to know little about the first-term senator, who is a woman. “He’s a good guy. He’s doing good so far. … I know him,” said Iman Cesari, a 30-year-old Nassau County employee on New York’s Long Island, who gave Ayotte $1,200.
“I just liked what he said at that time and wanted to make a donation,” said Hayati Camlica, who owns a Long Island auto repair shop and donated $2,400 to Ayotte on the same day.
Five of the Turkish Americans who donated to Ayotte that day could not be located at all, and in some cases, neither could the employer listed in Federal Election Commission records. Others did not return calls and emails seeking comment.
USA Today also reported that more than 200 members of Congress have accepted free trips to Turkey from the Gulenists.
Another article reports that Hillary Clinton has received large donations from Gulenists, as well as major contributions to the Clinton Foundation.
Maybe all this cash is meant to protect the Gulen charters, which have been a major revenue source for the Gulenists. The FBI has raided Gulen charter offices in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and in Louisiana.
Is it even legal for elected officials to accept contributions from foreign nationals?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It is legal, because I have Dutch friends who live in the U.S. on work visas and donate to local school board candidates after ascertaining that it was legal — their kids attend public school, so they have a strong interest. Not to defend the Gulen situation at all, just to get that question clarified.
This is not new news from USA Today…but I welcome that they are finally writing about this. Sharon Higgins (see her blog site, and also Susan Ohanian) has been the lead investigator on The Gulen Movement and his many charter schools in the US, near 147 to date, from which he nets about $500 million a year. This Turkish Imam lives in a guarded fortress in the Poconos and has been protected by the last three administrations, from Clinton who gave him asylum in 1999, to Bush, to Obama. The claim seems to be that he is a moderate Islamic…even though he is firmly committed to Sharia Law and sends vast amounts of money to foment wars in the Middle East, and now the Near East.
In LA, the BoE of LAUSD was about to take away his Magnolia Charter Schools for financial manipulation and non payment of bills, when, to the horror of many, he was allowed not only to continue the operation, he thereafter hired the notorious charter profiteer, Caprice Young (former head of CCSA), to run his operation. He has nurtured close associations with not only many legislators whom he treats to trips to Turkey (which he also does with the charter school students and their families), he is a key player in the worldwide Islamic movement and he has about 2,000 madrassas all over the globe. He also has close ties with billionaires such as the power mongering, Right Wing, Sheldon Adelson.
Yes, there is much more that must be exposed on how and why he is allowed to live in the US, use our taxpayer money for his schools and for importing over 2500 Middle Eastern men to run them (ostensibly because he could not find good American teachers) and when these men enter the US on Green Cards, many have disappeared into the general populace (are they ‘sleepers’???) and all paid for out of the pockets of the American taxpayers.
Below is the article I wrote about all this at City Watch Today….google City Watch Today and my name, if you wish to read more about Gulen and to read the many comments of Turkish men as to Gulen and his empire.
See at CityWatchToday…..
Fetullah Gulen: The Phantom of the Poconos … Paid for by Your Tax Dollars
(Archive)
… of the Middle East? (Ellen Lubic is Director of Joining Forces for Education and a public policy educator in Los Angeles. She is an occasional contributor to CityWatch. Her views are her own.) -cw …
Created on 10 July 2014
Why bother to stir up trouble for public education here when you can just import corruption at a wholesale price?
I despise Trump and will never go with his policies. But I would not mind kicking out the entire Gulen chain and sending them in a plane across Russian fly zones . . . . .
Maybe the Gulen chain will finally get some bad press, not because of their shady dealings, but because of anti-Muslim sentiment sweeping the nation. These are crazy times!
There is much to be concerned about when you have the largest network of publicly funded charter schools – in the USA with hands on large volumes of Federal Grants or funds intended to educate children using it to massage their business interests in SOCOR oil (Azerbaijan where they started their schools) and other energy or industrial related business from their TUSKON arm. Gulen has a lot of support from those that signed his letters for his green card appeal, politicians make lots of money from them. The Gulen Movement should not be allowed to open schools, especially in California where they recently just got out of the dog house by bribing their way out and putting tool Caprice Young at the helm of the schools. They also just had a teacher arrested at these Magnolia Science Academy for having sex with students. Nevertheless they just broke ground on their new facility in Santa Ana not to mention their application for a new school in Anaheim which will be heard on December 9, 2015. The laws / regulations overseeing charter schools is a license to steal…lets get them tightened up and stop the robbing of American public education. http://www.magnoliascienceacademy.blogspot.com and here is more from a group that has been tracking the movement worldwide since 2007 http://www.gulenschoolsworldwide.blogspot.com
GulenFraud…have read your links and beyond. Great work…we are on the same page. Are you perhaps the person who commented on my City Watch article? Would like to be in touch. Please contact me at
joiningforces4ed@aol.com
Bernie 2016 Contribution Envelope states “Federal election law prohibits contributions to Bernie 2016 from corporations, Labor unions, foreign nationals who are not admitted for permanent residence, and federal contractors. It requires the contributors be U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens and at least 18 years of age. All contributions must be made from personal funds and may not be reimbursed by any other person.”
Of course, the rules are likely much different for those with Super PAC’s or those accepting Dark Money contributions.
Feel the Bern 2016
Gulen school boards do include women and people without Turkish background. Many will be male and many will have Turkish names. There is an emphasis on including other cultures, though. (For example, this link will take you to the Governing Board for their schools in St. Louis: http://www.gsasouth.org/governing-board/ )
Another way to identify a Gulen charter is to look at their foreign language offerings. I believe that Turkish is always a Foreign Language option. Nothing wrong with that at all, but you probably won’t find that option at a non-Gulen school.
Lisa…they usually only offer Turkish for the Foreign Language option. And they focus on teaching Turkish history. They used to offer classes on religion, Sharia, but they were not allowed as a “public school” to do that, so they now focus on math proficiency. However, it is reported that the teachers take students on weekend retreats, and teach Islamic religion and law to attending students.
Ohio is a hot bed of Gulen schools. A recent whistleblower, rather than be considered a source for disturbing information, was instead attacked by DOE. No wonder, the Ohio legislature, including the speaker, has benefitted from Gulen generosity.
I remember that, Mathvale. Isn’t it disgusting? Must be payola by Gulan himself. The politicians don’t want campaign reform as much as they “want” ed reform. Its all about the $$$.
Yes, ODE threatened to go after the teachers who brought forth the story, even to the point of charging them for not “properly” reporting the issues. The teachers knew the “proper” channels were rigged, so the went to another organization. With Gulen schools lavishing our legislators with trips to Turkey and who knows what else, I cannot blame the whistleblowers.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Corruption by any other name.
Here is the only question as far as I am concerned. WHY do any parents send their children there? Do they not see a proliferation of male teachers from Turkey who speak English broken or poorly? Have they not heard the criticisms? Honestly, I don’t think I’d send my daughter to a school with only male personnel. I’d like to have some females around. And the fact that they are all here on visas is suspicious to me as well, as a parent.
I’d like to know if the Ohio Speaker of the House, Cliff Rosenberger, traveled to Turkey, on a trip, paid for, by a group associated with Gulen. If it’s untrue, Ohio newspapers should put the matter to rest.
You can google “gulen Ohio speaker” and judge for yourself. Plunderbund reported Niagara Foundation sponsoring trips way back in May, well before the USA Today article in November. There are postings on this site as well. Ohio has a long history of corruption whether Coingate, Cuyahoga country, or Taft hauled into court on charges. Strickland pretty much ran a clean government. Kasich has his secretive JobsOhio that is shielded from public scrutiny. If those books are ever publicly audited…
If Woodward and Bernstein would have given it a rest, history might look a whole lot different.
Thanks Mathvale. We can add the expose, by Josh Sweigart of the Dayton Daily News, published last week. He links Wright State University to lost, $2 million dollar contracts and, to a unique, self-serving definition for lobbyist.
In Chicago, T.B. Furman has covered this extensively in his blog, T.B Furman–he is quite thorough in his research/reportage, and has conferred with Sharon Higgins, as well. Many ILL-Annoy politicians have taken trips to Turkey, &/or have received awards from the Niagara Foundation. If you are in ILL-Annoy, I strongly recommend reading his blog.
The donations are questionable because they are large donations coming from people with modest incomes. The issue is whether the contributors are acting as “conduits”- passing money to politicians thru a third person to get around campaign finance laws and reporting rules. That’s what is against the law.
It’s (essentially) money laundering.
The (implied) allegation in the piece is the actual donors are hiding the source of the contributions by passing them through 3rd parties- individuals.
The Gulen charters are one of the most bizarre stories in ed reform. It is absolutely inexplicable to me how we ended up bringing in workers from other countries to run and staff publicly-funded schools. I think it’s outrageous. If any one of these politicians showed up in my conservative Ohio county and admitted they were supporting this it would be a major scandal.
We need ethics reform much more than we need ed reform. Our political system is corrupt. These people will sell out their constituents for 2000 dollars. They’re cheap to buy. It’s a great investment.
Conservatives support H1bs and similar programs because it brings in cheap labor from overseas. The workers are “sponsored” which means they don’t complain and do what they are told. The tech industry has long pushed the myth of a STEM worker shortage to raise the H1b cap and bring in more foreign workers to replace Americans. In industry, it is called “digging your own grave” as you train your foreign replacement. The added effect is American tech wages are suppressed and unions are broken. This will be yet another weapon against teachers.
I read that the Disney IT workers replaced by H1bs are now suing. Good for them, but the courts are rigged with conservative judges all the way up to SCOTUS. The H1b program was supposed to be used only if an American worker was not displaced. That rule is largely ignored and mostly older workers, quite capable, are fired. Ageism is everywhere and your tech career is over after 40 for most.
Mathvale,
Reporter Josh Sweigart, at the Dayton Daily News, wrote recently about the swim of the shared H1b visa’s and/or their associated employees, between the University and business. Adding to the story, WSU’s lawyer, who retired after her recent suspension, shared her view about the legal advice that WSU is getting from the Ohio Attorney General’s office. (The AG’s office put themselves in charge of the matter.)
One thing I am counting on, is there will be no charges filed, no penalties, and the matter, which involves politically-connected people, will die a quiet death…unless a basement dweller can be found and targeted.
From the FEC:
http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/foreign.shtml
“The ban on political contributions and expenditures by foreign nationals was first enacted in 1966 as part of the amendments to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), an “internal security” statute. The goal of the FARA was to minimize foreign intervention in U.S. elections by establishing a series of limitations on foreign nationals. These included registration requirements for the agents of foreign principals and a general prohibition on political contributions by foreign nationals. In 1974, the prohibition was incorporated into the Federal Election Campaign Act (the FECA), [HTML] [PDF] giving the Federal Election Commission (FEC) jurisdiction over its enforcement and interpretation.
This brochure has been developed to help clarify the rules regarding the political activity of foreign nationals; however, it is not intended to provide an exhaustive discussion of the election law. If you have any questions after reading this, please contact the FEC in Washington, D.C., at 1-800-424-9530 or 202-694-1100. Members of the press should contact the FEC Press Office at 202-694-1220 or at the toll free number listed above.
Except where otherwise noted, all citations refer to the Act and FEC regulations. Advisory Opinions (AOs) issued by the Commission are also cited.”
Short summary: People with Green Cards and permanent residency are allowed to contribute as are US subsidiaries of foreign corporations but foreign-owned corporations and foreign nationals are not allowed.
Definitely a gray-area money laundering scheme that is clearly known and overlooked by both political parties who want the cash.
Is there some crazy circle going on here? Gulen gets funds from the government to run schools, then gives the same money back to select candidates to run for the offices that (may or may not) give Gulen government money to run schools …which Gulen then donates back to candidates…..
The Gulen infiltration of charter schools is the best argument against charters that I know. Unregulated, unaccountable charter schools siphoning up public money for private gains is a horrible idea.
This may be one of the reasons why you see foreign nationals investing in charter chains. They can “buy” a visa for themselves and their family by investing. http://www.uscis.gov/eb-5
Caprice Young, the former LAUSD Board Member, was recently put in charge of reversing the catastrophic financial situation of the LAUSD Gulen schools (after having previously done so with the ICEF charter chain a few years ago.. essentially, some rich folks bailed out ICEF right before its total collapse, on the condition that ICEF’s corrupt founder and then-CEO Mike Piscal be totally barred from ICEF for life… but that’s another story.)
I don’t have time to find the quote (someone else can), but Caprice denies that that these schools have any connection to Gulen, or a the Turkish Muslim imam.. To Caprice, that’s all just a tin-foil hat conspiracy cooked up by the corrupt defenders of a failed status quo teachers union, and some parent groups who are the dupes of the teachers unions. They can’t handle the competetion.
Then why are all these politicians supporting the Gulen schools going on luxurious, all-expenses-paid junkets to Turkey?
At the LAUSD charter schools where Ms.Caprice Young is in charge, why are all, or almost all of the teachers of Turkish citizen on visas?
Pauline,
I regret to inform you that Ms.Young is prevaricating