How bad do things have to be before you’re banned from working for non-profits? I dunno, but that’s what’s happened in the case of former Congressional candidate Gene Christensen. Christensen agreed to the 10-year ban from working for a charity in Texas as part of a deal with the Texas AG’s office. In June, the AG sued Christensen, alleging that he wasted and misappropriated money from his charity, People Against Drugs, on his NASCAR racing team. On Friday, a judge signed an agreement that requires the former Celine resident to pay the AG’s office $100,000 and bans Christensen from serving on behalf of any Texas non-profit (including People Against Drugs) for the next 10 years. The AG’s office claims the $100,000 will cover the cost of its investigation.
It’s been a quick downward descent for Christensen, who has gone from owning a NASCAR truck-racing team and heading up a non-profit organization with $5.1 million in annual revenue to poverty within about a year and a half. In the Friday filing, Christensen is pleading insolvency, citing $50,000 in assets and about $316,000 in liabilities (including $25,000 in unpaid income taxes, $84,000 in alimony and more than $100,000 in unpaid credit card bills). Ironically, Christensen told me that when he ran for Congress against Ralph Hall in Collin County, he was hoping to bring a new perspective to Washington. From a financial standpoint, he might have fit right in. In the agreement between Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Christensen, neither side admits to any wrongdoing. I’m not sure how the state will collect its $100,000 from Christensen – I’d recommend cash on the barrel head. The People Against Drugs charity, meanwhile, is in Chapter 11 and creditors are still trying to figure out how they’ll be paid.
