Minnesota
Minneapolis nonprofit founders push back on lawsuit alleging they misused $2M in charitable assets
A Minnesota couple is accused of misusing nonprofit assets to fund “lavish lifestyles,” according to a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
The lawsuit is filed against Larry and Sharon Cook and their nonprofits, Real Believers Faith Center and Les Jolies Petites School of Dance, based in north Minneapolis.
“[The Cooks] diverted more than $2 million in charitable assets from Les Jolies and Real Believers to fund lavish lifestyles, luxury travel, designer goods, and for-profit ventures masquerading under nearly identical names, while pretending to serve their communities,” the lawsuit reads.
Larry Cook is the senior pastor at Real Believers Faith Center and called the lawsuit a lie.
“It’s an absolute 1,000% fabrication of the facts,” Cook said on Tuesday. “It’s a fiction, and I’m glad we’re here to talk about it, because we do great work in the community.”
The Attorney General’s Office claims that over the course of about six years, more than $1.3 million in funds were misspent from Real Believers and approximately $800,000 from Les Jolies. The lawsuit says some of those funds were spent at Michael Kors, Louis Vuitton, at a hotel in London and to pay the Cooks’ homeowners association for parking fines and late fees.
The lawsuit also accuses the couple of making false statements to the IRS and taking out loans that “served no charitable purpose.”
When the couple sat down with WCCO inside the church, they didn’t dispute the purchases and said they were all made for charitable purposes.
“I do get a salary for what I do at [Les Jolies], so they’re acting like we took everything that was for the nonprofit and spent it on ourselves, which is a total lie,” said Sharon Cook.
As for the travel, the couple said those are ministry trips with church parishioners and each person paid their own way.
“[The Attorney General’s Office is] gonna have to answer when we get to the courtroom, because documents and truth don’t lie,” said Larry Cook.
The couple got some media attention a few years ago when they bought a nearby crime-ridden gas station. The lawsuit says they used nonprofit funds to help cover the gas station bills, while the money made went into a for-profit bank account.
The lawsuit also accuses the Cooks of failing to register with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office as required by law, as well as violating the Minnesota Nonprofit Corporation Act.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office said a temporary restraining order is in place to protect the nonprofit assets from being diverted.
The Minnesota Lynx fell to the Connecticut Sun 90-89 on Monday night. Brittney Griner scored a season-high 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Kennedy Burke added 16 points off the bench, including two 3-pointers in the final three minutes for the Sun.
Burke made a 3-pointer with 2:53 remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Sun a five-point lead, and Griner added a shot in the lane with 1:25 left to make it 84-79.
Burke sank a wide open 3-pointer from the top of the key with 44.5 seconds left for an 87-84 lead. Then, former Lynx forward Diamond Miller made a key block for Connecticut and Griner sealed it on a layup with 18.2 seconds left for another five-point advantage.
Leila Lacan had 13 points and Olivia Nelson-Ododa added 10 points and eight rebounds for Connecticut (5-16), which won its second road game of the season.
Kayla McBride scored 28 points for Minnesota (15-6) and Courtney Williams had 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Natasha Howard scored 18.
Minnesota was without Napheesa Collier (left ankle) and Olivia Miles (right calf). Dorka Juhasz made her season debut and finished with three points in 25 minutes.
Griner scored 13 points in the first half to help Connecticut build a 48-44 lead.
Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve’s second attempt to become the WNBA’s career wins leader came up just short. The next chance will come Wednesday when Minnesota plays at Connecticut. Reeve is tied with Mike Thibault at 379 regular-season victories.
Up next
The teams play again on Wednesday in Connecticut.
Police are investigating after a man was arrested and another was injured in a shooting in Oakdale, Minnesota, on Thursday, according to officials.
Officers responded to a home on the 700 block of Gershwin Avenue around 10:24 p.m. for a report of an individual suffering from a gunshot wound. Police at the scene said they found a 32-year-old man who had been shot in the abdomen. He was taken to the hospital in stable condition.
Witnesses, according to police, said the injured man was standing near a bonfire in the backyard of the residence when he was hit by gunfire.
The officers weren’t able to find any suspects after they set up a perimeter and searched the area with help from several other law enforcement agencies.
Officials said police on Friday night arrested a 64-year-old Oakdale man in connection with Thursday’s shooting. Oakdale Police Chief Nick Newton said he was booked and later released.
Neighbors along a three-block stretch in St Louis Park, Minnesota, say vandals smashed car windows early Sunday morning along Quentin Avenue.
A spokesperson for the City of St. Louis Park said officers took 18 reports of vehicle tampering and stolen property around 5 in the morning. The city wouldn’t confirm how many cars were hit, but said the investigation is ongoing.
“I was just pulling out and I had to swerve and avoid all the glass on the street because most cars on this block had their windows smashed,” said Nachshown Fertel.
While Fertel’s car wasn’t damaged, a car parked across the street was smashed across the windshield. Two others were missing windows.
“Obviously, it’s expensive to repair and we don’t know who did it,” Fertel said. “We all have Ring cameras, but since most of them were on the street, only a few people caught glimpses of it.”
Two blocks away, WCCO talked to a man with four damaged cars sitting outside his home. He said all the windows on his family cars were smashed early in the morning, but no one got away with anything valuable. He called the whole ordeal upsetting.
Aharon Harkavy spent part of Sunday cleaning up shattered glass in his driveway. He said neighbors have had issues with stolen cars and some break-ins in the past, but this string of damage felt like an escalation.
“This needs to stop, the police need to really do something about it,” he said.
Back in May, Minneapolis police were investigating a string of break-ins on the southwest side of the city. That followed 30 cars hit by vandals in April over an 8-hour span. Last summer in Minneapolis, there were roughly 475 vehicle break-ins in 30 days between July and August.
Fertel said many of his neighbors in St. Louis Park attend the same synagogue and the community came together to help with repairs.
“I went over to the rabbi and I said, ‘Can we start a fund?’” Fertel explained. “I got a few people to donate. We pulled together some funds to help people pay for the damage.”
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