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New Hampshire review of an anonymous letter about Dartmouth’s trustee-linked endowment investments

A 2012 anonymous letter alleged that [[dartmouth-college]] trustees were paid fees by the endowment and returned part as gifts; the college denied it, and the state declined to investigate further.

2 links, 1 backed by primary records

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Dates
Feb–Oct 2012

In 2012 a group calling itself “The Friends of Eleazar Wheelock” wrote to state officials that Dartmouth trustees who run investment firms were paid high fees from the endowment and recycled part of them to the college as donations. The college called the letter inaccurate, said the investments were legal and proper, and said it began investing with those firms before the people joined the board. On 12 October 2012 the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Charitable Trusts director wrote that the office found no basis to conclude the trustees had violated state law, and that the claims did not merit further investigation. That is a decision not to pursue the matter, as Dartmouth reports it; it is not a finding on whether the investments were good value.

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  • Dartmouth College the subject of an anonymous letter alleging recycled fees; the college denied wrongdoing Scholarship & press 123

    The fee claims are allegations by anonymous letter-writers, with their own estimate of fees, and the college’s denial is given beside them. The 13.5 percent is the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s summary of reports in The New York Times and Bloomberg.

  • New Hampshire Attorney General reviewed the letter and declined to investigate further Primary record 45

    The words of the attorney general’s letter are known here only through Dartmouth’s notice.

Timeline 1 date
  1. Feb–Oct 2012 New Hampshire review of an anonymous letter about Dartmouth’s trustee-linked endowment investments
Proof 5 sources
  1. Letter urges investigation of Board, The Dartmouth, 29 May 2012. Scholarship & press
    For years Dartmouth has been run by and has paid sky-high fees to a group of investment manager trustees, all Dartmouth graduates, who have then recycled some portion of the fees (for which they were taxed at a favorable 15 percent) back to the College as generous donations
  2. Dartmouth Investments With Trustees’ Firms Stir Contention, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 8 Jan 2013. Scholarship & press
    About 13.5 percent of Dartmouth’s $3.5-billion endowment is invested in six funds associated with current or recent trustees, some of whom have made major gifts to the university.
  3. N.H. Reviews Conflict Claims on Dartmouth Investments, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 30 May 2012. Scholarship & press
    The letter accuses money managers serving as trustees or members of the college’s investments committee of “enriching themselves” through private-equity, venture-capital, and hedge-fund investments by Dartmouth’s $3.4-billion endowment.
  4. N.H. Attorney General: “No Merit” in Anonymous Endowment Allegations, Dartmouth College, 12 Oct 2012. Primary record
    The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has notified Dartmouth that it has reviewed anonymous allegations regarding how Dartmouth invests its endowment and has found that the claims do not merit further investigation.
  5. Dartmouth Conflict of Interest Claims Attract AG’s Attention, New Hampshire Public Radio, 29 May 2012. Scholarship & press
    An anonymous letter written three months ago sparked the Attorney General’s review.
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