A West Harlem nonprofit funded by Columbia University has burned through tens of millions in community development money amid allegations of patronage, inflated salaries, and racist conduct by its leadership, and New York Attorney General Letitia James has done nothing about it.
The West Harlem Development Corp. was created in 2009 when Columbia University poured roughly $100 million into a fund meant to invest in economic development across the neighborhood. The money was supposed to flow into local projects, affordable housing, youth programs, small arts organizations, as part of a deal that gave the university access to state eminent domain powers to acquire land in the Manhattanville section of Harlem for campus expansion. Seventeen years later, a New York Post commentary describes the WHDC as little more than a patronage machine that pays fat salaries to politically connected insiders while the community it was built to serve sees little return.
Among the attorney general's core duties is policing New York's tax-exempt charitable organizations. James has shown no hesitation in using that authority when the target suits her, she has sued the National Rifle Association and the Catholic Church. But WHDC, a nonprofit sitting on allegations of waste and possible self-dealing, has drawn no visible scrutiny from her office.
Vincent Morgan, the nonprofit's former director of housing development, filed a federal lawsuit against WHDC after his termination. Morgan claims he recorded his supervisor, WHDC Executive Director Zead Ramadan, making what the lawsuit describes as racist remarks about Dominicans, African Americans, Zionists, and what Ramadan allegedly called Jewish control of New York City. Ramadan has denied any wrongdoing.
Ramadan also serves as a board member of CAIR-New York, the Council on American Islamic Relations. The Post commentary alleges that WHDC helped formulate CAIR's strategy for responding to the Hamas terror attacks and hostage-taking of October 7, 2023, a claim that, if substantiated, would raise serious questions about how a taxpayer-adjacent community development fund spent its time and resources.
The federal court where Morgan filed his case, the specific docket number, and the lawsuit's current status remain unclear from available reporting. Those are details the attorney general's office could easily obtain, if it chose to look.
Of the tens of millions WHDC was supposed to invest in Harlem, $20 million was earmarked specifically for affordable housing. The Post describes the organization as distributing grants to local arts and youth organizations while paying outsized salaries to politically connected figures. Columbia University itself has reportedly washed its hands of the fund after years of concern about waste and abuse, walking away from a $96-million-plus commitment it once championed.
The nonprofit's current chair, retired judge Milton Tingling, is described as a highly connected insider. Tingling was recently named to Mayor Zohran Mamdani's advisory panel on judicial appointments, a position that deepens his ties to the city's political establishment even as the organization he leads faces a federal lawsuit and mounting questions about its stewardship of public-interest funds.
James's office has not commented publicly on WHDC, and no investigation has been announced. That silence is difficult to square with her record of aggressive enforcement against organizations she considers politically useful targets. The NRA and the Catholic Church discovered how willing James is to deploy her authority. WHDC, staffed by allies and insulated by political connections, has apparently earned a different standard.
The attorney general is not exactly in a position of strength. James was indicted on federal bank fraud charges related to a 2020 home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia. Prosecutors allege she signed a "second home rider" agreeing to use the property as a personal residence but instead rented it out, securing more favorable loan terms. James and her attorney, Abbe Lowell, have called the charges politically motivated.
Lowell told reporters:
"We are deeply concerned that this case is driven by President Trump's desire for revenge."
James herself said the charges are "baseless" and that "the president's own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost." The case was brought after a Trump-appointed prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide with no prior federal prosecutorial experience, replaced career prosecutor Erik Siebert, who had resisted pressure to file charges.
Whatever the merits of the federal case against James, the spectacle of an attorney general under indictment while a $100 million nonprofit in her jurisdiction faces allegations of waste, racist conduct, and self-dealing without so much as a public inquiry speaks to a deeper problem. James's office has already lost federal funding for its Medicaid fraud unit after criminal enforcement collapsed on her watch.
She is not the only state attorney general drawing scrutiny for how enforcement priorities align with political convenience. California AG Rob Bonta has faced corruption allegations tied to campaign donations and selective litigation, a pattern that looks uncomfortably familiar to observers of James's tenure.
The WHDC story is a case study in how progressive institutions fail the communities they claim to champion. Columbia University used eminent domain, one of the most aggressive tools government can deploy against private property owners, to acquire neighborhood land. The price of that power grab was a fund that was supposed to give something back to the residents displaced or disrupted by the expansion.
Instead, the fund became a vehicle for insiders. Ramadan, a CAIR board member facing allegations of racist remarks in a federal lawsuit, runs the day-to-day operation. Tingling, a retired judge with deep political ties, chairs the board and now advises the mayor on judicial appointments. The grants flow to small organizations. The salaries flow to the connected. And the $20 million earmarked for affordable housing has produced results so thin that even Columbia walked away.
Meanwhile, prominent Democrats have shown no shortage of enthusiasm for investigations when the targets are political opponents. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has openly previewed plans for aggressive investigations aimed at the Trump administration. James herself built her political brand on high-profile legal confrontations with conservative organizations and figures. The energy for oversight exists, it simply evaporates when the subject is a politically connected nonprofit in the attorney general's own backyard.
The legal landscape around James continues to grow more complicated. Her indictment has drawn comparisons to other politically charged legal battles, including the DOJ probe into E. Jean Carroll's testimony, which has raised its own questions about how the justice system handles cases tangled in partisan interests.
None of that complexity excuses the WHDC situation. The attorney general's office exists to protect the public from exactly this kind of alleged abuse, nonprofit organizations that take in enormous sums, pay insiders handsomely, and deliver little to the communities they are chartered to serve. The facts alleged in the federal lawsuit alone, recorded racist remarks by the executive director, a retaliatory termination, a nonprofit drifting far from its stated mission, would ordinarily be more than enough to trigger an inquiry.
But WHDC sits untouched. No subpoenas. No audits. No public statements. The residents of West Harlem, who were promised that Columbia's expansion would bring investment and opportunity to their neighborhood, are left with a fund that appears to serve everyone except them.
When an attorney general picks her fights based on political convenience rather than public duty, the people who pay the price are always the ones she claims to protect.