Fulani Nonprofit Raises Eyebrows

New York Post/August 5, 2001
By David Seifman

A youth group founded by controversial activist Leonora Fulani is in line to receive a tax-exempt $12 million bond from the city to buy a 42nd Street theater, The Post has learned.

City officials say there's no evidence that the All Stars Project Inc., which claims to serve 30,000 young people a year, isn't a legitimate nonprofit.

But they're wary of the group's connection to Fulani, a two-time presidential candidate whose radical brand of politics has drawn controversy for two decades.

"Everything on the surface seems OK," said one city official. "But it still doesn't add up."

The All Stars have an unlikely ally in Dominic Chianese, who plays Uncle Junior on "The Sopranos" cable-TV series and volunteers as a spokesman for the group.

Sources said Chianese met with mayoral aides to push the All Stars' application before the Industrial Development Agency for tax-free financing to buy 30,000 square feet of space in the historic Armory building at 529 W. 42nd St.

Chianese showed up at City Hall last March, about a week after he appeared on stage with Mayor Giuliani in the annual Inner Circle political spoof at the New York Hilton.

IDA's tax-free imprimatur could be worth several hundred thousand dollars, since it would allow the All Stars to borrow money at below-market rates.

It's application is scheduled to come before the IDA board on August 13th.

Gabrielle Kurlander, the All Stars president, said she's proud of the Fulani connection and "everybody associated with us knows what her role is" as co-founder and consultant psychologist.

She added that Fulani isn't paid and doesn't sit on the board of directors of the All Stars, which produces talent shows with inner-city youngsters.

Officials at the Anti-Defamation League, who for years have kept a file on Fulani, say she has never renounced her "divisive rhetoric."

She still supports Louis Farrakhan and his anti-Semitic rants," said Oren Segal an ADL research analyst. "Her history is still an issue."

The ADL quotes Fulani as saying that Jews "had to sell their souls to acquire Israel and are required to the dirtiest work of capitalism -- to function as mass murderers of people of color -- in order to keep it."

The All Stars Project, recognized by the IRS as an independent charity, raised more than $3 million in 1999.

But some of its spending would raise red flags at other non-profits.

In 1977, for example, the All Stars provided grants totaling $186,250 to the Castillo Cultural Center and the East Side Institute for Short Term Psychotherapy, both long associated with Fulani and her mentor, Fred Newman.

The line among the three groups often blurs.

All share space at 500 Greenwich St. in the West Village.

Newman serves as the Institutes director of training as the All Stars' $59,000-a-year artistic director.