The head of the board of directors of Ben & Jerry's, Anuradha Mittal has been accused in a watchdog complaint to the US's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of self-dealing - funneling tens of thousands of dollars of profit from the company into funding her pro-Palestinian nonprofit group, according to the New York Post.
The complaint, issued by the right-leaning nonprofit group, National Legal and Policy Center (NPLC), reads: "It is our contention that this is a possible violation of self-dealing as Mittal is considered a disqualified person under IRS rules."
Mittal, who is also a vice president of Ben and Jerry's nonprofit foundation, was involved in organizing the ban on ice cream sales in Israeli settlements in the West Bank that has been the subject of widespread media attention recently.
From 2017 to 2018, the Ben and Jerry's foundation donated USD $104,000 in grants to the progressive think tank The Oakland Institute, at which Mittal is the executive director and sole paid employee. During that period, Mittal was received $156,000.
At least part of the grant was used to finance "A bold multimedia project on land rights to mark 50 years since the Six-Day War and Israel’s occupation,” the Oakland Institute's 2017 annual report stated.
Another portion of the grant money, $3,000 according to IRS, was used to finance the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, an organization which had nearly $2 million worth of funding pulled by the European Union after it refused to sign an "anti-terror" clause in its funding contract, the Post reported. The clause stated that the funds would not be put toward to terrorist organizations, including Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades and Hezbollah's Jihad Council.
Mittal has a history of anti-Israel activism, the Washington Free Beacon alleged. In 2006, she published an article by former senatorial candidate Todd Chretien on the Oakland Institute's website that said "It is not the American anti-war movement’s job to lecture the people of the Middle East on how to conduct their resistance. You do not have to agree with all of Hezbollah’s ideas to support their resistance to Israel."
Mittal did not comment on the accusations, but she alluded to "false allegations" that were made regarding the Ben & Jerry's Foundation and the Oakland Institute, according to the Post.