D.C.’s AG Racine Files Delta Phi Epsilon Suit
By • June 7, 2021 One Comment 1917
Georgetown’s DPE Foundation Responds to Accusations
On June 3, the District’s Attorney General Karl Racine filed a complaint against Delta Phi Epsilon (DPE) fraternity and its foundation — both associated until recently with Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service — and a long-standing director of those nonprofits, Terrence Boyle.
According to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), Boyle is to be charged with “illegally diverting nonprofit funds” for personal gain and “abusing authority” over the DPE entities.
The suit alleges that “for decades” Boyle maintained control over the governance and finances of both the DPE fraternity and foundation and “used this control to enrich himself while failing to take any action in support of a nonprofit purpose.” Boyle “diverted funds from the two agencies for his personal benefit, rather than to further the nonprofits’ legal purpose of “supporting education in the foreign services.”
“Nonprofit funds are legally required to serve the public good and may not be used for personal gain,” A.G. Racine said. “My office will not allow the misuse of nonprofit funds to stand, nor will we allow those who hold power illegally to use money to enrich themselves.”
Boyle and the foundation “diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars in nonprofit funds to subsidize Boyle’s 1990 purchase of a personal home in Georgetown that provided no benefit to the Foundation,” according to the OAG. Since 2015, the DPE Foundation has also “failed to conduct any business at all, such as holding regular board meetings required by District law and the Foundation’s bylaws.”
Under Boyle’s control, the foundation “operated merely as a repository for donations from Fraternity members.” according to the OAG. “More recently, Mr. Boyle caused the Fraternity to donate its ownership interest in a different Georgetown house to the Foundation without the requisite authorization of Fraternity members, and further caused the Foundation to sell that property—thus depriving the Fraternity of any benefit from the sale of its primary asset.” In January 2020, The Georgetowner reported the listing price for the property at 3401 Prospect St. NW at $3.9 million.
“I am certain that the Racine complaint is spurious, and the OAG’s conduct abusive and unprofessional,” Manuel A. Miranda, counsel to the Delta Phi Epsilon Foundation, told The Georgetowner June 7 in an email response.
“Moreover, the OAG is being used by outside malefactors engaged in an internecine naked power (and money) grab typical among Greeks Letter groups. Moreover, they have chosen to malign an elderly Georgetown [University] alumnus and Georgetown community resident who has made his fraternity and, indeed, Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service a labor of love over a lifetime, and who has the support of the vast majority of DPE brothers. It is a reprehensible abuse of power and will be dealt with as such. The attack and defamation of Mr. Boyle is nothing but despicable.”
The law suit is not against the DPE Fraternity, but is against the DPE House corporation. The DPE Fraternity was never associated with Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, though Its membership mostly has been GU students, alumni or faculty.