Bankruptcy Trustee Seeks to Invalidate $8.1
Million Donation to Yale
A bankruptcy trustee for the now
defunct BearingPoint Business Consulting firm is
trying to force Yale University to return $8.1 million in donations
it received from BearingPoint since 2006. The trustee has
argued that "no material consideration flowed to BearingPoint, and
no benefit to its business or assets was derived from the
[contributions]" thus, the money should be returned.
The contributions at issue date back to 2006 when
BearingPoint pledged $30 million to the Yale School of
Management for various "naming opportunities."
BearingPoint later made additional pledges and payments to the
school to support "educational initiatives." The pledges
actually paid prior to bankruptcy in 2009 amounted to $8.1
million.
For the trustee to prevail, he will have to show
that the amounts BearingPoint gave to Yale were unreasonable, not in
terms of the return benefit received, but in relation to the size of
the company's overall expenses. Alternatively, he will have to
show that the grants were made for an improper purpose.
Stay tuned for further developments.
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