Anika Foundation linked to voter registration fraud
To be clear: neither the Anika Foundation itself nor anyone associated with it have been accused of any wrongdoing.
The occasion was the guilty plea hearing this morning for Ronnie Williams, a/k/a Michael Gibson, age 58, who pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit voter registration fraud. The scene took place in the Federal Courthouse in downtown St. Paul.
Your correspondent was there. Later in the day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office put out a press release.
Williams pled guilty this morning, and his romantic partner Lorraine Combs pled guilty last month, to the scheme to falsify hundreds of voter registration applications and submit them to a total of ten county voter offices.
It was revealed in open court today that Williams and Combs worked as contractors for the Anika Foundation. It was not revealed to what extent, if any, the Foundation was aware of their fraud.
A key paragraph from the USAO press release,
According to court documents, Williams then submitted the fraudulent registrations to Foundation 1 [Anika Foundation], an organization focused on voter registration efforts in Minnesota. Foundation 1 forwarded the false applications to county election offices throughout the state. In exchange, Foundation 1 compensated Williams for each registration submitted, and Williams shared a portion of the payments to his co-conspirator [Combs].
The MN Sec. of State’s office had previously indicated that no actual votes were cast as a result of the scheme.
A review of state records indicates that the Foundation was formally incorporated in 2008.
Over the years, the Minneapolis-based nonprofit Anika Foundation has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from the state government Departments of Health and Housing and a Democratic-linked nonprofit, Minnesota Voice.
Here is the Minnesota Voice listing for their 2022 grant to the Anika Foundation. $105,000 for “Civic Engagement.”
As it happens, Anika has a civic engagement project under the brand name Black Votes Matter. For the 2024 election the Anika Foundation published a 64-page Voter Guide under the Black Votes Matter brand. The BVM Voter Guide was sponsored by the state Dept. of Health with ads placed pages 9, 20, 36, and 56.
As for Ronnie Williams, who entered the guilty plea today, there was still disagreement between the defense and prosecution as to what his sentence should be. The prosecution described Williams’ past criminal history as “complicated.” The maximum sentence for the crime is 5 years, but for Williams the recommended sentence ranges from six months to 30 months.
Sentencing for Williams may take place in November.
Developing…