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Money Fight Inside Non-Profit Foundation
posted (July 17, 2014)
Last night, we showed you the 3rd Annual Award Ceremony for the Ariel Rosado Memorial Education Foundation. That happened yesterday, and this time around the foundation handed out 30 scholarships, twice the number it gave when it started back in 2011.

Viewers may remember that the foundation was created in memory of the late Ariel Rosado, a prominent cyclist, who was killed in a traffic accident. The non-profit organization's business is to give worthy candidates an opportunity to finish their education, but what wasn't revealed until earlier this week is that the founders of the organization are now embroiled in litigation.

Yesterday, we got some brief commentary from the Chairman of the Foundation's Board, Dr. Alvaro Rosado - who is also Ariel's dad. Here's how he explained his grievance with the Sanchez Father and Son, the other half board's management:

Dr. Alvaro Rosado - President, Board of Dir., Ariel Rosado Foundation
"We have been having internal problems with Mr. Sanchez, apparently their idea of what the foundation was all about was not our idea. We tried to work it out for a year and a half, they have decided to boycott the foundation, so we've had to make a claim in court asking them to free up the bank account. In the meantime the foundation has found other ways to provide money to pay for the scholarships that we are giving. At this point in time there is a bank account that's frozen with the majority of the money that we collected so far."

Geovannie Brackett, reporter
"Are you at liberty to say sir what are some of the other things that they probably envisioned that the money should have been used for?"

Dr. Alvaro Rosado
"I really would not want to guess as to what the motive is. But all I can say is that I sincerely hope that we can work it out. There are differences that we have in the philosophy of the foundation cannot change. There must be to provide scholarships and sporting opportunities. We are willing to discuss anything else, but that is not negotiable and we hope that they will come around to agreeing with that."

That interview was yesterday, but we didn't get a chance to speak with Bruce Sanchez Sr, so we held off until we got that opportunity. It came this afternoon where he invited the media to a briefing at his bike shop. There, he gave his side to the story, where he claims that Dr. Rosado started making moves to cut his son and him out of the operation of the foundation. Here are his comment, in which he claims that the Foundation was actually his son and his brain child after interacting with Ariel Rosado in his capacity as a cyclist:

Bruce Sanchez Sr. - Defendants In Memorial Foundation Claim
"An organization was formed by me and my son and both Rosado's and I have document to prove that - that that was the start of the foundation. So it wasn't like a favor they were doing, it's something that was planned from the beginning, that was the agreement for us to get together and raise funds for kids for scholarships and second, I want to show that Dr. Rosado keep saying about the board - he has a board. When he ran in trouble with the bank he went and open a second account with a bank only he and his wife that name Ariel Rosado Scholarship Fund. So leaves the one that was with me, my son, him and his wife because he ran in problems with the bank and he went and open a second account and he only puts himself and his wife - he didn't put anybody from the board and I will further show you what is his intention by doing that."

But the story is getting quite tangled, where both sides aren't giving any ground, and they're prepared to throw in folders of documents in support of their story. We'll take a closer look at the materials and have an update in tomorrow's newscast.

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