GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative (ELNC) decided Wednesday to close their doors after over a decade of operations, accusing their founder and former CEO of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years.
Thirty people lost their job Wednesday as a result.
Dr. Nkechy Ekere Ezeh started the ELNC in 2011. The nonprofit focused their work on assisting with the challenges of early-childhood education deficits in “vulnerable” neighborhoods.
Dr. Ezeh was recently sued by the organization she founded, accused of embezzling at least $656,350 and allegedly distributing the money to herself, friends and family.
Since the lawsuit was filed, the group says they have discovered “hundreds of thousands of additional dollars that are missing” from their accounts.
They say that some of the money discovered had been transferred to a business registered in the state of Georgia with alleged “ties to Nigeria.”
The group’s former director of finance Sharon Killebrew was also named in the lawsuit, allegedly complicit in the former CEO’s actions.
The lawsuit accuses her of paying herself nearly $1 million between June 2017 and April 2023.
An attorney representing the ELNC told FOX 17 on Wednesday that they now believe Dr. Ezeh has left the country for Nigeria.
“According to a social media post, our founder and former CEO, Nkechy Ezeh, has left the United States and is now in Nigeria for 'an errand,'" attorney Brian Lennon told FOX 17.
“Their greed caused ELNC to suddenly and permanently close our doors. Their greed has jeopardized programing [sic] for children and families in West Michigan who depend on the early-care and education programs ELNC funds.”
To put the nonprofit’s operations in perspective, the suit claims they had a total income of about $17 million in 2017.
“It is incomprehensible how anyone who claims to be committed to helping children and families could commit such brazen fraud,” Lennon said Wednesday.
He tells FOX 17 that the remaining representatives of the ELNC remain committed to recovering the funds that were taken, “and to see them brought to justice so they can atone for their misdeeds.”
According to the lawsuit filed, the nonprofit launched an internal investigation in early 2023 after a whistleblower's complaint relating to Dr. Ezeh’s alleged conduct, specifically referencing her alleged “reckless spending.”
The lawsuit claims the investigation found that Dr. Ezeh had used “a web of interrelated organizations to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to herself, as well as to her family and friends — money that should have been used to support at-risk youth.”
At its core, the lawsuit alleges that Dr. Ezeh formed multiple other entities in an effort to illegitimately funnel money to herself that she was not owed.
Dr. Ezeh is alleged to have formed a company called PONA Consulting around the same time she started the ELNC, naming herself as the registered agent in its articles of incorporation filed with the state of Michigan.
The suit also claims that Dr. Ezeh formed a group called the Early Years Coalition in April 2022.
The complaint outlines Dr. Ezeh’s alleged fraudulent activity like this: the ELNC would be awarded grant money from “various foundations, state and federal governments, individuals, and businesses.”
The ELNC would then allegedly distribute that money to a number of partner organizations, including the Early Years Coalition.
They claim that the Early Years Coalition would then pay “significant amounts of that money” to PONA Consulting via “fraudulent invoices,” allegedly diverting money directly to Dr. Ezeh.
ELNC Board Chair Amy DeLeeuw said Wednesday, “They masterminded an elaborate accounting scheme using a web of interrelated organizations to hide their financial misdeeds from the Board, employees and funders.”
She continued, “When the executive leadership of an organization conspires together to defraud an organization, the standard checks and balances and financial policies are a moot point. The founder and CEO of an organization should safeguard its finances, not divert them for her own use and that of her family. The person who could have stopped the fraud – the director of finance – was actually the person who enabled it.”
DeLeeuw said that the ELNC has been working for months to try and save the nonprofit.
Despite that, she says, “The fraud runs too deep for the organization to recover. We had no other choice but to close the doors.”
This situation with Dr. Ezeh is not expected to impact the Community Hub project that is ongoing in the Boston Square neighborhood.
The ELNC was set to be an anchor tenant within the planned 45,000-square-foot community facility.
"Although sad to hear, this news doesn't prohibit the project from moving forward," a spokesperson for the project told FOX 17 Monday.
The spokesperson said that the Community Hub project will likely seek out another partner to address the childhood education and development needs.
The $25 million project was expected to open in late 2024 or early 2025 at 1534 Kalamazoo Ave.
