James O’Keefe
James O’Keefe, the controversial founder of the conservative media company Project Veritas, is said to be under investigation by Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah’s office, according to published reports. O’Keefe was fired from Project Veritas, the company that he created, in Feb. 2023. Veritas has offices in Mamaroneck.
According to reporters Liz Farkas and Matthew Phelan in The Nation, O’Keefe is now under investigation for “Looting Project Veritas,” and “scamming his own donors.” (https://www.thenation.com/article/society/james-okeefe-criminal-investigation-project-veritas/).
Under O’Keefe, Project Veritas was most known for conducting undercover video investigations in which Veritas journalists were able to get their subjects to admit to unethical and sometimes illegal activities. Here in Westchester, Veritas was able to conduct an undercover sting of the Yonkers Federation of Teachers, (YFT).
But at the height of Vertias’ popularity, O’Keefe was removed from the company he founded in a coup by the Board of Directors in Feb. 2023. His removal was curious and was never fully explained by O’Keefe or the Board of Veritas, which continues to operate.
According to The Nation story, Rocah’s investigation could be focused on accusations by the Veritas Board that O’Keefe had “an excessive amount of donor funds in the last three years on personal luxuries”
The Nation story states, “We don’t talk about how we start our investigations,” the Westchester County DA’s director of public affairs, Jin Whang, said when reached by phone. “But if you want confirmation that we were and are, then yes. We can confirm that.”
and “Project Veritas did not initiate any potential investigation the Westchester DA’s office may be conducting with respect to James O’Keefe,” Hannah Giles, the newly appointed CEO of Project Veritas, responded via e-mail. “However, PV cooperates with the authorities as required by law.”
Project Veritas has also filed a civil suit against O’Keefe for their allegations of his improper expenditures while CEO.
An unamed former PV VP is quoted in The Nation story stating, “that the DA sent a request to Veritas for “all financial docs” relevant to the case,” and “We have complied and given them information.”
Project Veritas’ coffers began to fill as its popularity grew under O’Keefe, with $22 Million in donations in 2020. O’Keefe’s salary also grew to $430,000 in 2022.
The Nation story writes, “According to sources close to Veritas, the Westchester DA began fanning out investigators and issuing subpoenas last April, in response to the Veritas board’s public claims of O’Keefe’s inurement.”
In response to The Nation story, O’Keefe’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, told the AP that Rocah’s investigation was based on “disgruntled former employees of Project Veritas who had a problem with their CEO using too many car services to pay for fundraising efforts which paid their salaries.” and “We were told by the new Project Veritas CEO that the investigation had ended,” Lichtman said. “If it’s not, we will crush it in court.” (https://apnews.com/article/james-okeefe-project-veritas-westchester-investigation-9ba0592a335c00c8579c0e33a4968fc9).
And finally, back to The Nation’s intriguing reporting, “nearly all of Project Veritas’s staff has just been laid off, leaving a whole bunch of newly unemployed dirty tricksters out on the street seeking new venues to vent their frustrations.”
After leaving Project Veritas, James O’Keefe founded O’Keefe Media Group (OMG).
