The Soros Charity That Sent 100% of Its Grants to Its Own Political Arm — Which Then Endorsed Mamdani

Three months before Bend the Arc Jewish Action endorsed then-New York State Assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani for Mayor of New York City — its first-ever mayoral endorsement in the organization’s history — its sister charity filed a federal tax return with a striking disclosure. The charity, Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, listed exactly one grant recipient for the entire year. That recipient was Bend the Arc Jewish Action — the political arm. The Founding Chair of the political arm, disclosed on the same return, is Alex Soros.

To understand why that matters, you need to know how these two organizations work. The organization referred to throughout this article as the charity is Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice — a 501(c)(3), the kind donors write checks to and take a tax deduction for. The organization referred to as the political arm is Bend the Arc Jewish Action — a 501(c)(4), the kind that can engage in political advocacy and endorse candidates. They share the same Manhattan office suite, the same CEO, and the same records custodian. The charity reports 77 employees; the political arm reports zero, and acknowledges on its own federal return that the charity’s employees conduct activities on its behalf under a written cost-sharing agreement.

What the two organizations’ most recently filed federal returns show — covering the fiscal year that ended three months before the Mamdani endorsement — is this: the charity sent $1,000,000 — 24 cents of every operating dollar — directly to the political arm as a cash grant. The political arm’s own return then confirms another $966,060 of the charity’s staff costs were being spent on its behalf under the cost-sharing agreement. Add those together and nearly half of every dollar the charity spent — 48 cents, confirmed by both organizations’ own federal returns — flowed to or for the political arm. The upper bound, if all staff costs are included, is 84 cents on the dollar.

A $1.5 million debt the political arm owes the charity has remained essentially unchanged across three consecutive balance sheets — despite $3,174,747 in claimed repayments over the same period.

And on the political arm’s own federal return, one part of the form says the two organizations do not share employees. Another part of the same form — signed by the same CEO on the same day — describes the written agreement under which the charity’s 77 employees conduct the political arm’s work.

Alex Soros also chairs the Open Society Foundations. On October 11, 2025, he publicly endorsed Mamdani on X. On November 4, 2025 — election night — Alex Soros posted a penthouse photo with Mamdani captioned “So proud to be a New Yorker! The American dream continues! Congrats, Mayor @ZohranKMamdani.”

On October 22, 2025, the Working Families Party PAC transferred $950,000 to its own independent expenditure committee — the political committee that ultimately spent $1,815,447 in total independent expenditures supporting Mamdani and opposing his main rival (including $737,278 supporting Mamdani and $978,370 opposing Cuomo in the final two weeks of the campaign; the final figure reflects NYC Campaign Finance Board data through the end of the election, updated from the $711,792 reported in my prior article published before election day). The upstream funding chain behind that transfer — tracing the money from George Soros entities through multiple tax-exempt intermediaries to the Working Families Organization — is documented in detail in my prior forensic analysis. Eight days after that transfer, Open Society Foundations told the Daily Mail that its grants to the network were made “years before the mayoral race even began.”

All of this is reported by the organizations themselves, on returns signed under penalties of perjury. Mamdani won the November 4, 2025 general election and was sworn in as Mayor on January 1, 2026.

The organizations are Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice (501(c)(3), EIN 52-1332694) and Bend the Arc Jewish Action Inc (501(c)(4), EIN 46-0539726). The returns were filed in May 2025. They cover the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. This is what they show.

The Central Question

The underlying question is straightforward, and the legal mechanics that make it matter are these: when a donor — whether an individual contributor or a grant-making foundation — transfers money to a 501(c)(3) charity, federal law confers a tax benefit on the premise that the money will be used for charitable, not political, purposes. For individual donors, that benefit is a deduction under IRC §170. For grant-making foundations, it is the tax-exempt treatment of the transfer itself. In every case, the 501(c)(3) receives its tax-exempt status on the explicit condition that it does not engage in political campaign activity. Wherever the money originates in the chain — from an individual writing a personal check or from another 501(c)(3) foundation making a grant — the charitable purpose that justified every tax benefit in that chain is the same condition. At some point in the charitable chain, deductible or tax-exempt treatment attaches to the funds flowing through these 501(c)(3) organizations. That tax benefit — wherever it originates in the chain — rests on the same condition: the money must be used for charitable, not political, purposes.

If charitable money is transferred to a political arm that uses it to fund political advocacy, endorse candidates, and deploy campaign operations, the tax benefits conferred at every step of the chain rest on a foundation that the actual use of the money contradicts. If charitable dollars were used to subsidize political activity, the conversion would raise precisely the question federal tax law is designed to police — and the IRS would forgo tax revenue, at every link in the chain, on money that ultimately funded politics.

That is the conversion the law prohibits — under IRC §4955, which imposes excise taxes on political expenditures by tax-exempt organizations, and under the operational test that governs whether a 501(c)(3) retains its exempt status at all. Does Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice operate that way? The federal information returns do not answer that question. They raise it.

These are not abstract questions. I have filed a formal IRS Whistleblower complaint formally acknowledged by the IRS Whistleblower Office, documenting these patterns across a network of related tax-exempt organizations. Bend the Arc Jewish Action is one of eight endorsing organizations documented in that complaint. The complaint also documents the upstream Soros entities and the conduit organizations through which funds were converted from charitable to political use. The IRS holds the examination authority this article does not.

Background and Prior Findings

Eight months ago, I published a forensic analysis documenting bidirectional flows between these two related entities through the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023. The central finding was a balance sheet anomaly: a $1.5 million accounts receivable on the charity’s books that did not decline after $1.6 million in claimed “reimbursements.” I asked at the time how an organization endorsing a then-candidate for mayor came to be funded by a sister charity sitting on a debt that behaved like equity. The two organizations have since filed their next annual returns with the IRS. The new filings — covering the year ending three months before the Mamdani endorsement — make the picture worse, not better.

The receivable is still there. The grant pattern has tightened to a single recipient — for the third consecutive fiscal year. A third transaction direction has appeared. The Bend the Arc Jewish Action PAC (EIN 32-0459830) — disclosed on the political arm’s Schedule R as a §527 political organization two years ago — was then dropped from the political arm’s Schedule R the following year, and has reappeared on the political arm’s most recent return reclassified as a §501(c)(4) social welfare organization. And the expense allocation, which the September 30 article did not have the data to examine, now establishes that the charity’s reported activity is structurally oriented around the political arm to a degree the 2022 filings only suggested.

What follows is what the two organizations’ returns for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 — signed under penalties of perjury by CEO Jamie Beran on May 14 and May 15, 2025, prepared by Robert J McNamee, CPA, of O’Connell & Company LLC — actually report. Every figure was extracted directly from the e-filed XML returns. I follow the documents, not the politics.

A donor who writes a check to Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice is told they are giving to a 501(c)(3) charity that “harnesses the collective energy, passion, and talent of progressive American Jews to change policy and elect leaders in service of a more just and equal nation.” The donor takes a deduction under IRC Section 170. The IRS forgoes the revenue. The public is told the money will fund charitable purposes. The federal information returns describe what the donations actually paid for.

The Charity That Funds One Recipient: Itself

Here is the entirety of Schedule I, Part II, of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice’s Form 990 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024:

That’s not a partial table. That’s the table.

No food banks. No housing programs. No legal aid clinics. No Jewish community organizations. No grants to the “vulnerable communities” the mission statement champions. No grants to anyone other than the affiliated 501(c)(4). The Schedule I is one row.

The 501(c)(3) received $3,090,358 in tax-deductible charitable contributions during the same year.

Federal law permits a 501(c)(3) charity to fund a related 501(c)(4) — provided the grant supports activities consistent with the charity’s exempt purpose and does not constitute a political expenditure. That permission, however, is not a blank check. The legal question is whether the charitable dollars, once transferred, are actually used for charitable purposes — or whether they fund political activity, in which case the transfer is precisely the conversion described above: a donor’s tax deduction subsidizing politics.

With that question in mind, consider what this 501(c)(3) reported on its own federal information return: its sole external grant recipient in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 was the political arm. Not its largest recipient. Not its primary recipient. Its only recipient. Every dollar this charity granted to any outside organization went to the 501(c)(4) that, on September 26, 2025 — four months after the charity filed the return on which this disclosure appears — endorsed Zohran Mamdani for Mayor. The organization’s first mayoral endorsement in its history. One that helped elect the now-sitting Mayor of New York City.

Source: 2023 Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice Form 990, Schedule I Part II (single RecipientTable entry). Filed May 14, 2025.

Where Every Dollar the Charity Spent in the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2024 Actually Went

If a 501(c)(3) charity’s only Schedule I grant goes to its own 501(c)(4), the obvious next question is: what was the rest of the money spent on? Maybe the grant is just a small slice of a much larger charitable operation that does its work directly. Maybe the 77 employees the 501(c)(3) reports on its return are running soup kitchens, legal aid clinics, immigrant support programs — the kinds of things the mission statement describes.

So I went to Part IX of the same Form 990 — the Statement of Functional Expenses — and added up where the $4,087,442 in total expenses actually went. Then I cross-referenced what that money was doing against the 501(c)(4)’s own Schedule O, which describes the staffing arrangement between the two organizations.

One objection worth addressing directly: both organizations do have operational expenses paid to outside third parties. The charity pays rent, legal fees, accounting fees, IT vendors, insurance premiums, and consultants. The political arm pays its own accounting, consulting, occupancy, and technology costs. Neither organization exists in a vacuum. That is not the question. The question is where the charity’s charitable grantmaking goes — the money raised from donors who received a federal tax deduction. That function is disclosed on Schedule I. Schedule I shows one recipient for three consecutive fiscal years: the political arm. Not its largest grant recipient. Not its primary grant recipient. Its only grant recipient. Every dollar this charity directed to any outside organization through its charitable grantmaking function went to the political arm. The operational expenses do not change that finding. They are separate questions.

The 501(c)(4) reports zero employees on its Form 990 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. The 501(c)(3) reports 77. The 501(c)(4)’s own Schedule O — its explanation of Part IX Lines 5–10 of its own return — states the arrangement in the organization’s own words:

“Bend the Arc Jewish Action shares staff and certain other expenses with Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice (BTA-JPJ), an IRC Section 501(C)(3) organization, pursuant to a written cost-sharing agreement. Under the agreement, BTA-JPJ employees conduct activities on behalf of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, and Bend the Arc Jewish Action promptly reimburses BTA-JPJ for all associated expenses, including the allocable share of employment taxes.”

The 501(c)(4) — which has zero employees of its own — also reports $966,060 in salaries and employee benefits on its own Form 990 (Part I, Line 15; Part IX, Lines 5–10). That figure is the political arm’s allocable share of the charity’s staff costs under the cost-sharing agreement. It is the political arm’s own quantification, on its own return, of how much of the charity’s $2,433,276 in total staff costs was for the political arm’s work.

On the same return, the 501(c)(4) reports $126,638 in direct political expenditures on Schedule C, Part I-A, Line 2 — separate from, and in addition to, the activities of the related PAC discussed below.

Up to 84 cents of every operating dollar the 501(c)(3) charity spent in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 is either a direct grant to the 501(c)(4) or tied to staff costs within the shared-staff structure that the 501(c)(4) discloses on its own return. The confirmed floor — what both organizations’ own returns directly establish as flowing to or for the political arm — is 48 cents on the dollar. The difference between the floor and the upper bound depends on how the cost-sharing agreement allocates the remaining $1,467,216 in the charity’s staff costs.

What is not in dispute, because both organizations report it themselves, is this: the political arm, with zero direct employees of its own, books almost a million dollars in salary expense each year — for staff who, by the political arm’s own description, work for the political arm. And the charity that employs those staff lists exactly one external grant recipient on its return: the same political arm.

The audited financial statements confirm these figures — and add one detail the Form 990 does not make explicit. The charity’s audited Statement of Functional Expenses, prepared by O’Connell & Company LLC, classifies the $1,000,000 grant to the political arm entirely under the Program column — not under Administration, not under Development. The grant is not labeled as a transfer to a related entity. It sits in the same column as every other program activity the charity conducts. The reader can draw the appropriate conclusion.

The charity’s 77 employees — the same employees who, under the cost-sharing agreement, conduct the political arm’s activities — are unionized. Note 14 of the charity’s audited financial statements discloses that staff unionized in 2021 with the Nonprofits Professional Employees Union and ratified their first collective bargaining agreement on July 15, 2024, effective for three years through July 14, 2027. The political arm discloses zero employees. Its work is conducted by union-represented workers employed by and paid through the charity.

Source: 2023 Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice Form 990 (fiscal year ended June 30, 2024), Part IX (Statement of Functional Expenses): total expenses $4,087,442; total salaries and benefits $2,433,276; grants paid $1,000,000; all other expenses $654,166. Form 990 Part I Line 5: 77 employees. 2023 Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990 (fiscal year ended June 30, 2024), Part I Line 15 / Part IX Lines 5–10: $966,060 salaries and employee benefits; Part I Line 5: zero employees; Schedule O explanation of Form 990 Part IX Lines 5–10 (cost-sharing agreement quoted above). Bend the Arc — A Jewish Partnership for Justice Audited Financial Statements for Years Ended June 30, 2024 and 2023, prepared by O’Connell & Company LLC: Statement of Functional Expenses (grants $1,000,000 classified under Program column); Note 14 (union contract ratified July 15, 2024). Bend the Arc Jewish Action Audited Financial Statements for Years Ended June 30, 2024 and 2023, prepared by O’Connell & Company LLC: Statement of Functional Expenses (salaries and benefits $966,059).

The Four-Year Pattern: Donors Funded an Operation, Not a Charity

The fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 isn’t an outlier. It’s the fourth consecutive year showing the same architecture from a different angle. The charity’s charitable contributions declined 44.6% over this period — from $5,579,130 (FYE 6/30/2021) to $3,090,358 (FYE 6/30/2024) — yet the outflow ratio to the political arm remained persistently above 62% in every year.

For every dollar this 501(c)(3) charitable organization received from donors over the four-year period, the organization’s own federal information returns report that roughly 74 cents flowed directly to the political arm as documented inter-entity transfers. The other 26 cents funded the operations that — per the 501(c)(4)’s own Schedule O admission — were being conducted on the 501(c)(4)’s behalf.

In three of those four years — fiscal years ended June 30, 2022, 2023, and 2024 — the 501(c)(3)’s Schedule I, Part II reports a single grant recipient: the 501(c)(4). In each of those three consecutive fiscal years, the entirety of this charity’s external charitable grantmaking, as disclosed on its own federal information returns, went to the political arm. The grants column on the Form 990 is, for three consecutive years, a single line. The three-year cumulative total: $5,500,000 — 100% to the 501(c)(4). The charity’s prior return (fiscal year ended June 30, 2021) had reported 12 Schedule I recipients; the single-recipient pattern began with the next fiscal year and has continued unchanged through the most recently filed return.

There is a second way to measure this. Instead of comparing outflows to contributions received, look only at the charity’s outgoing side: of every dollar the charity sent to any external organization across the four-year period, what percentage went to the political arm? Four-year answer: 97.5% ($11,084,257 of $11,374,257 in c3-reported external outgoing transfers). In each of the three most recent fiscal years individually: 100%. For three consecutive years, this charity’s reported outgoing transfer activity has been — by its own filings — directed exclusively to the political arm.

Stated plainly: on the face of its own filings, every documented activity of this 501(c)(3) leads to the political arm. The grants go there — and only there. The staff work for it. The cost-sharing agreement formalizes it.

Source: Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice Forms 990 for fiscal years ended 6/30/2021 through 6/30/2024 — Part I Line 8 (contributions and grants received); Schedule I Part II (grants to organizations); Schedule R Part V (transactions with related organizations).

A Third Direction of Money Flow Appears in the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2024

My September 30 article documented two directions of money flow between the 501(c)(3) and the 501(c)(4): grants from the charity to the political arm, and reimbursements flowing back. The returns for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 add a third direction that did not exist in the earlier filings.

So in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, the 501(c)(3) charity gave the 501(c)(4) political arm $1,000,000 as a grant, then reimbursed it for an additional $1,271,504, while at the same time the 501(c)(4) reimbursed the 501(c)(3) for $1,538,473. Three separate streams of money flowing between two organizations that share a CEO, an office suite, a records custodian, and 77 employees — in the same fiscal year.

This volume of bidirectional reimbursement activity is consistent with organizations operating under a highly integrated shared-services structure rather than as independent entities transacting at arm’s length.

Source: 2023 Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990, Schedule R Part V (three TransactionsRelatedOrgGrp entries: Types C, P, and Q). 2023 Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice Form 990, Schedule R Part V (corresponding related-party disclosures, though not identically presented on both returns).

Two Returns, One Transaction, Two Different Answers

The $1,271,504 Type Q transaction — reimbursement paid by the charity to the political arm — raises its own disclosure question. Both the charity and c4 returns cover the identical fiscal period (July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024). Both were prepared by the same CPA firm (O’Connell & Company LLC, preparer Robert J. McNamee, CPA). Both were signed under penalties of perjury by CEO Jamie Beran on May 14 and May 15, 2025.

The political arm’s Schedule R, Part V reports a Type Q transaction of $1,271,504 — reimbursement paid by the charity to the political arm. The charity’s Schedule R, Part V does not report a corresponding Type P transaction (reimbursement paid by the filing organization to a related organization) or any other outbound entry to the political arm in this amount. Additionally, the charity’s Form 990 Part IV indicator field for “Reimbursement Paid To Other Organization” is marked “No.”

Two returns, same fiscal period, same preparer, same CEO. The political arm reports a $1,271,504 payment received from the charity. The charity’s return does not contain a corresponding disclosure that appears to reconcile to that amount. The filings raise a reconciliation question that the returns themselves do not answer.

Source: 2023 Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990, Schedule R Part V (Type Q, $1,271,504); 2023 Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice Form 990, Schedule R Part V (no corresponding Type P entry); c3 Form 990 Part IV (ReimbursementPaidToOtherOrgInd = “No” in e-filed XML). Both returns filed May 2025 by O’Connell & Company LLC.

The Receivable That Will Not Die

In September I called it a smoking gun. Eight months later it is still on the balance sheet.

The 501(c)(4)’s Form 990 Schedule D Part X reports a balance-sheet line item titled “DUE TO BEND THE ARC – JPJ” — the amount the 501(c)(4) owes the 501(c)(3). Across the three most recently filed 501(c)(4) returns, that balance has been:

Two organizations, filed independently, signed independently — and the figures match to the dollar on every balance sheet date. The $1,538,473 on the charity’s asset side is the same $1,538,473 on the political arm’s liability side. There is no question about what the number represents. The political arm’s own audited financial statements — Note 4, prepared by the same auditor and dated the same day as the Form 990 — describe it plainly: the political arm owed the charity $1,538,473 “for operating expenses.” Not a loan. Not a grant obligation. The political arm’s operating expenses, carried on the charity’s books.

Across the three-year period, the 501(c)(4) reported $3,174,747 in Type P reimbursement payments to the 501(c)(3) — $1,636,274 in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023 plus $1,538,473 in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, both per the political arm’s own Schedule R Part V. And yet the receivable balance ended the fiscal year at $1,538,473 — $4,775 higher than where it started three balance-sheet dates earlier.

After more than three million dollars in claimed loan repayments, the receivable has effectively not moved.

A debt that barely moves despite more than $3.1 million in claimed repayments is exactly the kind of thing forensic accountants scrutinize. The IRS examines what explains the difference.

The charity’s own audited financial statements add a further dimension. Note 2 of the charity’s audited statements — the Liquidity note — lists the $1,538,473 owed by the political arm as a financial asset available for general expenditure within one year. The charity is treating an uncollected three-year-old debt as a liquid asset. Whether a receivable that has not been collected in three consecutive fiscal years qualifies as available within one year is a question the audited financial statements raise but do not resolve.

The audited financial statements contain one additional finding worth noting. The political arm’s Statement of Functional Expenses reports a $100,000 bad debt expense for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, classified entirely under the Program column. The audited statements do not identify the counterparty — meaning they do not disclose whose receivable was written off or why. In the context of the persistent $1,538,473 owed by the political arm to the charity, the existence of an unidentified $100,000 bad debt on the political arm’s own books is a disclosure gap the documents leave open.

Finally, an apparent presentation error in the audited financial statements warrants documentation. Both sets of audited financial statements — the charity’s and the political arm’s — were prepared by the same firm, O’Connell & Company LLC, dated the same day, May 14, 2025. Both audited financial statements appear to contain the same presentation error in their Statements of Cash Flows: the year-column labels are reversed when compared with the corresponding Statements of Financial Position. The column labeled “2024” contains fiscal year 2023 data; the column labeled “2023” contains fiscal year 2024 data. This can be verified by cross-referencing the ending cash balance in each cash flow statement against the balance sheet. For the political arm: the column labeled “2024” shows ending cash of $2,481,803 — but the balance sheet confirms the June 30, 2024 ending cash was $2,300,845, not $2,481,803. The $2,481,803 figure is the June 30, 2023 balance. For the charity: the column labeled “2024” shows ending cash of $10,716,094 — but the balance sheet confirms the June 30, 2024 ending cash was $11,618,770. The $10,716,094 figure is the June 30, 2023 balance. The same labeling error appears in both sets of financial statements, prepared by the same auditor, on the same day, for two related organizations — suggesting a common template or source document in which the cash flow columns were not corrected before issuance. The Balance Sheets and Statements of Activities in both documents carry correct year labels; the error is specific to the Cash Flow Statements. The numbers are correct; the presentation is not.

The political arm’s net assets tell their own story. Three consecutive years of decline: from approximately $1,553,519 (fiscal year ended June 30, 2022) to $908,711 (fiscal year ended June 30, 2023) to $691,146 (fiscal year ended June 30, 2024). The political arm is drawing down its reserves. Combined with the 44.6% decline in charitable contributions flowing into the charity over the same period, the financial architecture documented in this article is contracting — even as the political operations it supported ran at full scale through the fiscal year ending three months before the Mamdani endorsement.

Source: Bend the Arc Jewish Action Forms 990 for FYE 6/30/2022, 6/30/2023, and 6/30/2024, Schedule D Part X (Other Liabilities — “DUE TO BEND THE ARC – JPJ” line item); Schedule R Part V (Type P transactions). Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice Forms 990, Part X Line 4 (Accounts Receivable). All figures extracted directly from e-filed XML returns. Bend the Arc — A Jewish Partnership for Justice Audited Financial Statements for Years Ended June 30, 2024 and 2023, Note 2 (Liquidity): “Due from related party” $1,538,473 listed as financial asset available for general expenditure within one year; Note 4 (Related Party): amounts due characterized as owed “for operating expenses.”

The Same Form, Two Different Answers

The 501(c)(4)’s Form 990 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 contains an internal contradiction within its own four corners.

On Schedule R, Part V, Line 1o — the question: “Sharing of paid employees with related organization(s)?” — the organization answered: No.

On Schedule O, on the same return, signed by the same CEO on the same day, the organization explained how its program activities are conducted: “Bend the Arc Jewish Action shares staff and certain other expenses with Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice (BTA-JPJ), an IRC Section 501(C)(3) organization, pursuant to a written cost-sharing agreement. Under the agreement, BTA-JPJ employees conduct activities on behalf of Bend the Arc Jewish Action.”

Schedule O describes sharing staff. Schedule R says they don’t share staff. Both signed under penalties of perjury, on the same Form 990, on May 15, 2025.

The 501(c)(4) reports zero employees of its own. The 501(c)(3) reports 77 employees. The 501(c)(3)’s employees, by the 501(c)(4)’s own admission, conduct the 501(c)(4)’s activities. If that does not meet the definition of “sharing paid employees with related organizations,” I would like to hear the definition that excludes it. This is not the first year in which the political arm’s Schedule R and Schedule O are in direct conflict on the same return — the same cost-sharing arrangement appears on prior filings, while Schedule R has consistently answered “No” to the employee-sharing question.

Source: 2023 Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990, Schedule R Part V Line 1o (PaidEmployeesSharingInd = “false” in XML; “No” on visual form); Schedule O, Form 990 Part IX Lines 5-10. Both within the same return. Both signed by Jamie Beran, CEO, on May 15, 2025.

The PAC Has Appeared, Disappeared, and Reappeared on Schedule R — With Two Different Classifications

The 501(c)(4)’s Schedule R Part IV has identified Bend the Arc Jewish Action PAC (EIN 32-0459830) as a related tax-exempt organization on two of the three most recently filed returns — with material disclosure inconsistencies across them.

Three disclosure inconsistencies within the same Schedule R Part IV across these three consecutively filed returns:

1. The PAC was dropped from Schedule R in the intervening year. The political arm’s Schedule R for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023 does not list the PAC as a related tax-exempt organization. No Schedule O explanation appears for the omission or for the re-disclosure on the following return.
2. The reported exempt classification changed from §527 to §501(c)(4). The Schedule R for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022 reported the PAC’s exempt code as “527” (political organization). The Schedule R for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 reports the PAC’s exempt code as “501(C)(4)” (social welfare organization). The same EIN was reported under both classifications across the two returns on which it appears. No Schedule O explanation appears for the change.
3. The “Controlled Organization” indicator changed from “Yes” to “No.” The Schedule R for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022 identified the political arm (Bend the Arc Jewish Action) as the PAC’s direct controlling entity. The Schedule R for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 reports the PAC as not a controlled organization. No Schedule O explanation appears for the change.

The Bend the Arc network, as disclosed on its own federal information returns, comprises three related entities operating from a single Manhattan office suite: a 501(c)(3) charity, a 501(c)(4) political advocacy arm, and a political action committee. The political arm’s Schedule R disclosures concerning the PAC across three consecutively filed returns are not internally consistent.

Source: Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990 for FYE 6/30/2022 (filed May 11, 2023), Schedule R Part IV — second IdRelatedTaxExemptOrgGrp entry, EIN 320459830, ExemptCodeSectionTxt “527”, ControlledOrganizationInd “true.” Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990 for FYE 6/30/2023 (filed May 15, 2024), Schedule R Part IV — only one related entity listed, the 501(c)(3). Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990 for FYE 6/30/2024 (filed May 15, 2025), Schedule R Part IV — second IdRelatedTaxExemptOrgGrp entry, EIN 320459830, ExemptCodeSectionTxt “501(C)(4)”, ControlledOrganizationInd “false.” All extracted directly from e-filed XML returns.

The Charity and Its Political Arm Now Occupy the Same Office Suite

Both the 501(c)(3) and the 501(c)(4) flag the Address Change indicator on their returns for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. Both organizations now list the same address — 266 W 37th Street, Suite 803, New York, NY 10018 — same building, same suite number, same floor.

The records custodian for both organizations is the same individual — Tonda Case, listed on Part VI Section C Line 20 of both returns.

The 501(c)(3) was previously located at 330 Seventh Avenue, 19th Floor. The two organizations have now physically consolidated into one suite. The Form 990 calls them related organizations. The address makes them roommates. The Schedule O makes them, operationally, the same organization.

Source: 2023 Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice and 2023 Bend the Arc Jewish Action Forms 990, Filer USAddress and BooksInCareOfDetail sections.

The Upstream Funding Chain

The charity does not exist in isolation. A documented chain of grants from George Soros-affiliated organizations and the Tides network flowed into the Bend the Arc network across multiple tax years, all verified directly from IRS XML primary source filings.

The Foundation to Promote Open Society (501(c)(3), EIN 26-3753801) — one of the Soros family’s primary charitable vehicles — made five documented grants totaling $1,333,500 to the charity between tax years 2020 and 2024. The three grants in tax year 2020 alone totaled $1,033,500, with stated purposes including combating antisemitism and supporting the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing. A $200,000 grant followed in tax year 2023 for general support. A $100,000 grant followed in tax year 2024 for antisemitism programs — made before the political arm’s September 2025 mayoral endorsement.

Open Society Institute (501(c)(3), EIN 13-7029285) made matching gift program disbursements to the charity across six tax years totaling $29,400. Tides Foundation (501(c)(3), EIN 51-0198509) — itself a documented recipient of Foundation to Promote Open Society funding — made grants totaling $1,642,000 to the charity across tax years 2018 through 2024, in addition to a separate $10,000 grant made directly to the political arm in tax year 2018. Tides Center (501(c)(3), EIN 94-3213100) granted $188,000 to the charity in tax year 2023. Working Families Organization (501(c)(4), EIN 20-4994004) granted $25,000 to the charity in tax year 2023.

Direct grants to the political arm from 501(c)(4) entities include $56,300 from Tides Advocacy (EIN 94-3153687) across tax years 2020 and 2021, and $200,000 from Open Society Policy Center Inc. (EIN 52-2028955) in 2018 — for the stated purpose of supporting “policy advocacy on caregiving infrastructure.” These 501(c)(4)-to-501(c)(4) transfers are legally permissible but document the coordinated network surrounding the political arm.

In aggregate, identified upstream grants to the Bend the Arc network from Soros-affiliated and Tides-affiliated entities total $3,484,200 across 2017 through 2024. Of that total, $3,217,900 flowed to the charity — a 501(c)(3) whose charitable grantmaking function directed 100% of its grants to the political arm for three consecutive fiscal years. The IRS XML primary source filings are the authoritative source for grants within the available repository; the 2018 Open Society Policy Center grant is sourced from the Open Society Foundations grant database.

The conversion from stated charitable purpose to political deployment is not disclosed in any of the upstream grant records. It is documented in the charity’s own Schedule I.

Source: Foundation to Promote Open Society (501(c)(3), EIN 26-3753801) Forms 990-PF, grants list (Schedule B/Part XV): TY2020 (three grants totaling $1,033,500); TY2023 ($200,000); TY2024 ($100,000) — all to Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice (c3); amounts extracted directly from IRS e-filed XML returns. Open Society Institute (501(c)(3), EIN 13-7029285) Forms 990-PF, grants list: TY2017 ($8,550); TY2018 ($7,950); TY2020 ($7,500); TY2021 ($4,650); TY2022 ($450); TY2024 ($300) — all matching gift program disbursements to Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice (c3); extracted from IRS e-filed XML returns. Tides Foundation (501(c)(3), EIN 51-0198509) Forms 990, Schedule I: TY2018–TY2024, grants to Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice (c3) totaling $1,642,000; TY2018 direct grant of $10,000 to Bend the Arc Jewish Action (c4); extracted from IRS e-filed XML returns. Tides Center (501(c)(3), EIN 94-3213100) Form 990, Schedule I: TY2023, $188,000 to Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice (c3); extracted from IRS e-filed XML return. Tides Advocacy (501(c)(4), EIN 94-3153687) Forms 990, Schedule I: TY2020 ($50,000) and TY2021 ($6,300) to Bend the Arc Jewish Action (c4); extracted from IRS e-filed XML returns. Working Families Organization (501(c)(4), EIN 20-4994004) Form 990, Schedule I: TY2023, $25,000 to Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice (c3), purpose “C3 GRANT — FUNDERS COLLABORATIVE ON YOUTH ORGANIZATION”; extracted from IRS e-filed XML return. Open Society Policy Center Inc. (501(c)(4), EIN 52-2028955): 2018 grant of $200,000 to Bend the Arc Jewish Action (c4), purpose “to support policy advocacy on caregiving infrastructure”; sourced from Open Society Foundations grant database; predates the IRS XML repository for this entity (TY2020–TY2024); originally documented in the Eighth Supplemental Submission to the IRS Whistleblower Office.

Alex Soros: From Board Member to Founding Chair — Disclosed Across Three Consecutive Returns

The political arm’s Form 990 Part VII, Section A has disclosed Alex Soros as a board-level officer across all three of its most recently filed returns, with a title change documented between the first and second of those returns:

The political arm elevated Alex Soros’s reported title from “Board Member” to “Founding Chair” between the returns for the fiscal years ended June 30, 2022 and June 30, 2023 — a change disclosed on the return filed May 15, 2024, approximately 17 months before the Mamdani endorsement. At the time of the endorsement, the “Founding Chair” designation had been on record for two consecutively filed Forms 990.

His role at Bend the Arc Jewish Action — the 501(c)(4) political arm — is reported by the organization itself, on its federal information return, covering the fiscal year that ended three months before that same organization endorsed Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of New York City. Alex Soros also chairs the Open Society Foundations. What the document establishes is a name and a title in the organization’s own disclosure. I draw no inference from it beyond what the document itself reports.

Source: 2023 Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990, Part VII Section A; 2022 Form 990, Part VII Section A (title change from Board Member to Founding Chair); 2021 Form 990, Part VII Section A (original Board Member listing).

Alex Soros, Open Society Foundations, and the Documented Record

Federal tax law evaluating the relationship between affiliated tax-exempt organizations is not bounded by paper formalities. The Internal Revenue Service evaluates compliance under a “substance over form” doctrine — meaning the documented architecture of an arrangement is judged against the operating reality behind it. A 501(c)(3) charity whose Schedule I lists one grant recipient, whose 77 employees conduct the political arm’s activities, and whose three-year c4-reported “DUE TO” balance has remained essentially flat despite $3,174,747 in claimed reimbursement payments is one set of facts. The same architecture, run by a Founding Chair who has an active and publicly documented political relationship with the candidate that affiliate endorsed, is a substantively different set of facts even though the federal information returns look identical.

The Twelfth Supplemental Submission I filed with the IRS Whistleblower Office on January 2, 2026 documented the following timeline using primary-source records — Form 990 filings, FEC filings, NYC Campaign Finance Board records, and Alex Soros’s own dated public X posts:

The October 22, 2025 transfer of $950,000 occurred 11 days after Alex Soros’s public endorsement of Mamdani and 2 days after his second tweet promoting Mamdani’s campaign. Open Society Foundations’ October 30 statement to the Daily Mail — that the grants were made “years before the mayoral race even began” — was made 8 days after that $950,000 transfer.

The funding architecture behind that $950,000 was documented in detail in my prior IRS submissions. In summary: at least $10,185,830 flowed in 2023 from George Soros entities to the Working Families Organization (501(c)(4)) through four documented channels (Foundation to Promote Open Society (501(c)(3)) → Tides Foundation (501(c)(3)) → Working Families Organization; Foundation → Tides Center (501(c)(3)) → Tides Advocacy (501(c)(4)) → Working Families Organization; Open Society Action Fund (501(c)(4)) → Working Families Organization; and Center for Popular Democracy (501(c)(3)) → Working Families Organization). The Working Families Organization then redistributed at least $5,246,550 to political action committees across eight years (2016–2024), including the $2,000,000 transfer to Working Families Party PAC on December 9, 2024 that funded the October 22, 2025 deployment.

Bend the Arc Jewish Action — the 501(c)(4) at the center of this article — is one of eight recipient organizations in that network that endorsed Mamdani. The other seven: the Working Families Party (operating through the Working Families Organization hub), Make the Road Action, NY Communities for Change, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, MoveOn.org Civic Action, Emgage Action Inc (501(c)(4)), and VOCAL-NY Action Fund Inc (501(c)(4)). Total documented network funding: at least $40,867,412 across eleven channels, all traceable to George Soros entities.

What this means for the Bend the Arc analysis: the documented architecture inside the two Bend the Arc Form 990s is not an isolated set of accounting choices by one Manhattan-based charity. It is one node in a documented multi-organization funding network whose Founding Chair publicly endorsed the candidate the network’s eight recipient organizations all endorsed, whose Open Society Foundations made a public statement whose timing the documented record contradicts — eight days after a $950,000 campaign deployment, and whose former Open Society Foundations President now chairs the new Mayor’s signature government commission.

None of this is a legal conclusion. Each item is a documented public fact citable to a primary or near-primary source — Form 990, FEC filing, NYC Campaign Finance Board record, dated X post, or contemporaneous published press coverage. Together, they describe a relationship that goes well beyond the 1.00 hour per week and $0 compensation Alex Soros reports on the Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990.

This is the substance behind the form. The IRS examines both.

Source: 2023 Bend the Arc Jewish Action Form 990, Part VII Section A (Founding Chair role); Twelfth Supplemental Submission to IRS Whistleblower Office, filed January 2, 2026 (network funding architecture, $40.9M total, eight endorsing organizations across eleven channels, the October 11/20/22/30 timeline, the November 4 penthouse post, the documented relationship between Open Society Foundations and the Mamdani-endorsing network); Daily Mail, “George Soros-Backed Groups Poured Millions into NYC Mayoral Race,” October 31, 2025 (Open Society Foundations’ October 30 statement); NYC Campaign Finance Board independent expenditure file through December 1, 2025 (deployment data); FEC filings (PAC transfer chain); Alex Soros (@AlexanderSoros) X posts archived October 11, October 20, and November 4, 2025; OSF public records and Mayor’s office statement (Gaspard appointment).

What the Documents Establish

Read separately, each of these findings could perhaps be characterized as unremarkable. Read together, on the same set of filings, signed by the same CEO under penalties of perjury, they describe a single organizational architecture that goes directly to the conduit question raised at the outset:

• For three consecutive fiscal years — FYE 6/30/2022, 6/30/2023, and 6/30/2024 — this 501(c)(3) charity’s Schedule I reports exactly one external grant recipient: the political arm. Three-year cumulative total: $5,500,000. That is 100% of the charity’s external grantmaking for three years, directed entirely to a political organization. For four years running, roughly 74 cents of every charitable dollar received flowed to the 501(c)(4) as documented inter-entity transfers — 97.5% of all outgoing external transfers over the period, and 100% in each of the three most recent fiscal years.
• The two organizations’ returns for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 contain a $1,271,504 transaction that the political arm reports receiving from the charity and the charity does not report making. Same preparer, same CEO, same fiscal period. The filings do not reconcile. This is a disclosure question the IRS can examine; it is not one this article can resolve.
• Alex Soros is reported as Founding Chair of the 501(c)(4) — elevated from Board Member as reflected in the return filed May 2024 — during the fiscal year ending three months before the organization’s first-ever mayoral endorsement. He also chairs the Open Society Foundations, publicly endorsed Mamdani on October 11, 2025, and posted a penthouse photo with the Mayor-elect on election night. His predecessor at Open Society Foundations now chairs the new Mayor’s Commission on Government Efficiency.
• Bend the Arc Jewish Action is one of eight organizations in a broader documented network that received at least $40,867,412 from George Soros entities across eleven channels in 2023 — and all eight endorsed Mamdani. The legal characterization of that network is for the Internal Revenue Service. The documented facts are in the public record.

In September 2025, I asked how an organization endorsing a then-candidate for mayor came to be funded by a sister 501(c)(3) charity sitting on a $1.5 million receivable that never decreased. The candidate is now the Mayor.

In May 2025, the two organizations filed their next federal returns. Those returns — covering the fiscal year ending three months before the endorsement — show a 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose Schedule I lists one grant recipient, the same single recipient it has listed for three consecutive years and to whom it has directed $5,500,000 — 100% of its external grant program — over that period. Whose 77 employees include those who, per the 501(c)(4)’s own Schedule O, conduct activities on behalf of the 501(c)(4) under a written cost-sharing agreement. Whose accounts receivable balance has remained essentially intact across three balance-sheet dates and $3,174,747 in claimed repayments. And whose returns for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 contain a $1,271,504 transaction that the political arm reports and the charity does not.

At minimum, 48 cents of every dollar the charity spent is primary-source-confirmed as flowing to or for the political arm. The upper bound is 84 cents. The 501(c)(3)’s reported outgoing transfers went to the political arm at a concentration of 97.5% over four years — and 100% in each of the three most recent fiscal years.

The Founding Chair of the political arm is Alex Soros — elevated from Board Member to Founding Chair on the organization’s own return — who publicly endorsed the candidate on October 11, 2025. Whose Open Society Foundations told the Daily Mail on October 30, 2025 that the grants funding the broader endorsing network had been made “years before the mayoral race even began” — eight days after $950,000 was transferred to a political committee that spent the money supporting the candidate. Who posted a penthouse photo with the new Mayor on election night. And whose predecessor at Open Society Foundations now chairs the new Mayor’s signature government commission.

Federal tax law evaluates exempt-organization compliance on substance, not paper. The substance is documented. The donors who took the deduction were told their money would heal and repair the world. The federal information returns — and the dated public record of who runs what, what they said, and when they said it — describe a different destination.

— S.E. Antar

I will update this analysis as new documents become available. I have been wrong before. When I am wrong, I correct it publicly. That is the standard I hold myself to. It should be the standard applied to every organization that signs a federal information return under penalties of perjury.

By Sam E. Antar | Forensic Accountant & Fraud Investigator

Sam Antar is a former CFO of Crazy Eddie who committed securities fraud before cooperating with federal authorities. He has spent over 30 years training the FBI, SEC, and DOJ on fraud detection. He follows the documents, not the politics.

Follow @SamAntar on X

Disclosure: I am a former felon who committed securities fraud at Crazy Eddie before cooperating with federal authorities. I have spent over 30 years as a consultant and educator on fraud detection for the FBI, SEC, DOJ, and other law enforcement agencies. This analysis is based exclusively on public records — the organizations’ own federal information returns (Forms 990), filed under penalties of perjury. Nothing in this report constitutes a legal conclusion. Where I characterize something as a documented fact, I have linked or cited its primary source. Where I draw an inference, I have said so explicitly.

This article is part of an ongoing investigation into charitable-to-political funding conversions. Previous coverage:

• Did Tides Advocacy, at the Center of a Soros-Funded Charitable Network, Disclose What Federal Tax Law Requires? (May 26, 2026)
• From Soros Foundation to Mamdani’s Mayoral Campaign: Following the Money Through the Circular Funding Machine (September 30, 2025)
• How Soros Tax-Exempt Syndicate Laundered Charitable Donations Into Political Support and Ground Operations for Mamdani (October 28, 2025)

© 2026 Sam E. Antar. All rights reserved.