Federal Officials are Looking in to How the Black Economic Union of Greater Kansas City Spent Tax Dollars

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In August 2018, Special Agent Joseph Lorek from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development emailed Stuart Bullington, the former assistant director of Kansas City’s Neighborhoods and Housing Services Department, asking for an accounting of all the federal money given to the Black Economic Union of Greater Kansas City (BEU). Bullington responded with a 2014 contract between BEU and the city to improve the Lincoln Building, the historic building BEU used to own. The contract included $100,000 of federal money, $75,000 of which those funds were being budgeted to upgrade the elevator. Five years later the elevator has still not been repaired. BEU was given two contract extensions to complete work on the Lincoln Building. In February 2015, the city gave BEU an additional $71,500 for the first extension. In an email from Bullington to Lorek, BEU spent less than $24,000 of the $100,000 in federal money and less than $39,000 of the $71,500 in Kansas City sales tax money fixing up the Lincoln Building.  BEU sold the Lincoln Building to Henry Service in 2017 for $750,000 after receiving roughly $387,000 in federal stimulus money, $171,500 in federal and city money, and a $400,000 loan. Tax records show that salaries and other employee benefits increased from $7,540 in 2015 to $79,361 in 2016.

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