Milo, allegedly
Milo Yiannopoulos’s “Privilege Grant” was announced with great fanfare back in January. The alleged college scholarship program, designed to tweak PC sensibilities by offering money only to white males, was supposed to start offering scholarships this fall, providing 50 lucky white dudes $2500 each, for a total of $125,000 in its initial year, $25,000 of which would come from Milo himself.
Well, the school year is almost upon us, and … nothing. Not only has the fund failed to distribute any of the promised money; it hasn’t even set up an application form on its website.
Now YouTuber Margaret MacLennan, a self-described “basic monarchist and conservative” who was the original “director” of the alleged scholarship fund and who helped Milo raise money for it, is asking where the money went.
On Reddit, someone called enough__is___enough is flat out accusing Milo of taking the money and running, posting a detailed set of accusations in the EnoughTrumpSpam subreddit:
According to enough__is___enough, “the former director of the now defunct grant [says that] donations for the grant were routed into Milo’s business, Caligula Limited” — a business that has apparently since been dissolved. MacLennan — presumably the “former director” alluded to — Tweeted what appears to be the wire transfer instructions for donations, which suggest that the money was to go directly into Milo’s bank account.
Milo says the accusations in the Reddit post are “garbage,” as he put it in a Facebook comment today. On the Privilege Grant website he or one of his army of interns has put up a slightly more detailed response, claiming that, hey, he’s just running a little late with the whole “actually giving money out” thing. His excuse? He’s been TOO FAMOUS to get the grant pulled together.
“The initial flurry of interest in the Privilege Grant, and my skyrocketing media profile, left us behind on logistics,” he declares, without apology.
In an astonishing coincidence, the Privilege Grant web page also announced today that it had appointed
a new administrative lead for the Privilege Grant …
Now that the Privilege Grant has been staffed, donors, potential applicants and interested parties can expect monthly updates on the Privilege Grant’s website at https://privilegegrant.com/.
How strange that this happened totally by coincidence literally two days after people started asking questions publicly about the money! It’s all very Trumpian.
The same press release also claimed that “the Privilege Grant is in the process of applying for charity status with the U.S. government.”
And they’ve got a NEW SCHEDULE that they will totally be keeping to:
The current plan is for the Privilege Grant to run a pilot grant program for the Spring semester of the 2016-2017 school year, and then administer the full grant program for the 2017-2018 school year.
On the front page of the site, though, the Privilege Grant is still said to be on a schedule that would be possible only with the use of a time machine:
Applications will open in Spring 2016. Privilege Grants will be awarded in early Summer 2016 to be available for Fall 2016 enrollment.
It’s all very ethical.
H/T — Thanks to Margaret Pless (@idlediletante) of Internet Famous Angry Men, the first to alert me to this; I also sort of borrowed the headline from her.
EDIT: Added a few details about MacLennan.
@Croquembouche of patriarchy
I honestly can’t tell, but “ASMR Trump Tweets” sounds like the dumbest thing I’ve seen all day, and I got up early. Does she actually believe that anything short of extreme stupidity would ever make anything Trump said or wrote sound good ?
Sinkable John:
Well she seems to have believed that trying to troll Jon de Lancie’s Q&A would yield something useful to her, so – who knows?
I don’t know why y’all are being so hard on Milo, I’m sure he’ll be able to explain everything and will drop a link to the application on Twitter soon
Oh, wait…
Ew, Milo. New low. Or is it? I can’t keep track of Milo’s many lows.
And they call Sarkeesian a crook, because she delivered exactly what she said she would, and then some. Except she didn’t do it to their arbitrarily assigned timeline, so SCANDAL. Meanwhile, in Yiannopoulis land…
Has anybody actually gone to the authorities here? I mean, it is actually illegal to scam people. I’ve gotten so used to rampant harassment and threats getting by with an “oh, it’s just the internet” excuse, but I think when he’s stealing literally thousands of actual dollars, the lawmen might actually come for him.
Can you imagine going to the authorities with that ? That’d take shamelessness to a whole new level, especially without the anonymity they enjoy on the internet.
Shameless on the part of the person making the report you mean? To publicly announce that they donated to a white man fund? I mean, yeah, but at that point they are pretty much devoid of shame, aren’t they?
I mean, Milo’s a UK citizen, isn’t he? I don’t know how it works there, if it has to be reported by an injured party or if a third party can make the report. It should be a criminal, not civil, matter, shouldn’t it?
Oh I’m not saying they aren’t shameless enough to do it. I’m just having fun imagining the raised eyebrows from the other side of the desk. If in the UK, that would probably be one single eyebrow. They can do that. It’s impressive.
As for UK law… maybe Alan would know ?
@ sinkable John
Well, without casting any aspertions against any particular individuals….
Yeah, obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception (which includes getting cash yourself but also causing other people to lose cash even if you yourself don’t get the benefit) is an offence. You have to be ‘dishonest’. That requires what we call specific intent. It’s not enough to be reckless or careless. If the natural consequences of your free actions (or lack of actions) would lead to a particular result though you’re deemed to have intended it. So collecting money on a particular basis with no plan in place to implement thar plan could amount to an offence.
You don’t need an actual complainant or victim to come forward (otherwise murder would be a bugger to prosecute) in English law, but obviously in practical terms it’s easier to prove a case with witnesses ( although not always necessary)
ETA: there are also various regulatory fiduciary offences under the rules about companies and charities, but whether they’re criminal or civil is a complex issue in legal circles.
Totally O/T but Nicola Adams has just won her second gold medal! That means that Yorkshire is heading to be in the top 10 on the medal table (we came 12th in 2012)
@Alan Robertshaw
Thanks for the great info Alan! I was just kind of pondering out loud, I didn’t know there was an actual legal expert here!
The fact that his company dissolved shortly after collecting the donations (and that it was routed through his personal bank account) does kind of make it look intentional rather than just incompetent, plus the fact that he started collecting donations without even registering as a charity or staffing the fund at all (we only have his word that he’s even done those things now). Even if it really was just a case of incompetence, he should have returned the money once things fell apart to this degree.
@ ktoryx
Expert is certainly pushing it; but I’ve been in court a lot over the years, often as a lawyer!
(© Lionel Hutz)
Looks like Milo simply follows the Father Ted method of financial management. That money was just resting in his account.
@Alan
Thanks for the clarification. That all being said, I’d actually hate to see him made into a martyr by his fanbase for such a lawsuit. They totally would, even though he scammed them.
The remarkable thing about Terrance, and all modern reactionaries, MRA’s, etc, is that they don’t see the disconnect between championing “masculinity” and typing away at a computer on the internet.
Perhaps I’m a bit old fashioned, but that’s what nerds do, right? Real men are busy shooting things and watching football. They have no need for “social media” and fancy talk about “marxism.”
Real men don’t complain about unfair double standards. They just get the job done.
They’re working full-time and fixing things around the house. They’re sleeping with women. They’re playing loud music and working on a car.
I’ve never met an “alpha male” or “player” who spent all their time rambling on comment’s sections about the evils of feminism. Not. Even. Once.
This diatribe has gone on long enough, but it’s just amusing to me that these people are such utter failures even by their own twisted, cartoonish standards for what a man should be.
By Karl Marxs beard! Surely you jest!
You’re not trying to tell me Milo is as untrustworthy with other peoples money, as his “peers” Carl Benjamin, Jordan Owen, Davis Aurini, Paul Elam et al.
If I didn’t know any better, I might come to the conclusion that the entire neo-reactionary tantrum (that dreams itself a “movement”) is lead and front-manned by narcistic sociopaths with delusions of grandeur and entitlement issues that would make Justin Bieber blush.
But that’s obviously not the case, since they’re the champions of free speech and righteous rebels against the oppressive gynocracy.
Dude, dammit for real! Do not malign Grunkle Stan by associating him with this preening, posturing, punk ass little ponce. Please!
I feel so offended on Grunkle Stan’s behalf.
He’s a far better man than Milo.