Last night, we gave you but a small excerpt of our interview with Bruce Sanchez Sr. one of the senior members of the Board of Directors of the Ariel Rosado Memorial Education Foundation.
The Foundation was founded as a non-profit organization in memory of the late Ariel Rosado. Its main business is to provide needy scholars with funding to finish their education, and it's main source of revenue is donations from members of the public.
At this time however, there are serious allegations of financial mismanagement coming from Bruce Sanchez Sr. He was the appointed as the Vice President of the Board, and his son, Bruce Jr., the Treasurer. But, they discovered financial transactions done by President Alvaro Rosado which they believe are questionable, and so, for months, they've been boycotting the Foundation and its board. The problem is that in doing so, the Sanchez men are directors of the Rosado Memorial Foundation's bank account. This means that whenever the board wanted to make any transactions, they needed the signature of the Sanchez's.
When they stopped giving it, the foundation had to find other means of doing business, until the bank blocked them altogether, and so, Rosado and the Board have been forced to take him to court.
Sanchez, who is the Owner of Bruce Bike Shop, sought to protect his reputation by getting out in front of the dispute in the public domain. He held an extended press briefing yesterday in which he brought documents and copies of cheques, which he says is proof that Dr. Alvaro Rosado has been making financial moves with seem dubious in nature.
Here's how he described it:
Bruce Sanchez Sr. - Defendants In Memorial Foundation Claim
"We have cheques that he signed. We have one, two, three, four, five cheques here. We will show 5 cheques right now that he and his wife only signed and the account setup up for either he or his wife or me or my son to sign - that's how the account sets up. We are only dealing with some of the cheques. It's over $13, 000 in cheques that either he alone signed, his wife alone or both of them excluding us contrary to what the bank agreement say which we have here."
"We weren't aware of it; we means me and my son weren't aware of it. The reason why we weren't aware of it was because we trust them and we realize the statements were going to them the Rosado's, so we didn't know but we suspect something was wrong. So I and my son in a meeting decided to be treasurer. My son Bruce wanted to be treasurer and when we became treasurer then we realize that we get these cheques, the cancelled cheques - we get everything. Then we realize really what was going on. So we decided not to continue because of the behavior of the Rosado's, so what we did is that we kept these cheques and we sent back what we wanted. These are original cheques from the bank that we hold. I have two cheques in my hand and I want to bring to the media attention that some of these cheques are made out to the bookstore, some of these cheques are made out to government, some of these cheques are made out to some schools and you will say maybe what's the big deal - you are dealing with kids and the money - the cheque is going to the purpose of the foundation. I want to show you 2 special cheques beside those ones; one of them made out to himself. He signed it himself and his wife - put it in his name, reverse it and he put it into his bank account. Then you will say again these cheques are made out t the proper people that we are doing business with because we are a foundation, we are for the school."
"I have another one here that he made out to some Shelley Bradley, he and his wife again only. Turn it back, Shelly Bradley released it to him, he deposit it again to his account. So you would say, maybe these are genuine. But when you have cheques are showing and operating like this - it's amazing. He is not supposed to be signing these cheques and he still yet having cheques signed back to him and putting it into his account. I mean, these are not photocopy cheques, these are cheques that basically is genuine cheques, return cheques from the bank that he is doing these things. So I decide that I don't want to be a part of it. I don't want to be a part of it because I saw what he is doing and I know at some point we have to answer to what is going on here. There will definitely be a day when we will have to answer. So I just leave it as it is. I decide that I don't want to be - he is claiming that I am holding the association hostage, but I don't see it. He is the one that is creating the problem. I don't want to join him - that's the reason why is he saying that. I don't want to be a part of it and that's why I backed off and watch to see what will happen. We are in the courts right now. The court basically ordered for me to come off and him to come off and we get some people to sign cheques."
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