Coming Sunday: Brown’s New Mega-Donor and Ties to a Company with a Checkered Past
GoLocalProv Investigation
Coming Sunday: Brown’s New Mega-Donor and Ties to a Company with a Checkered Past
Brown University has, in recent years, solicited major gifts from some donors with, shall we say, complex backgrounds.
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GoLocal has chronicled in detail the background of the Lindemann family — whose donation of tens of millions of dollars scored them the naming rights to the Lindemann Performance Arts Center.
In 2023, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that the Lindemann family had agreed to surrender 33 pieces of art.
The Lindemann family has been tied to numerous controversies, including one of Rhode Island’s worst environmental crimes and a contract hit on a show horse, besides the looted art.
In 2004, Mr. Sidney E. Frank donated $100 million dollars to the University to support undergraduate financial aid.
More than 100 women claimed that Frank, the liquor baron, had harassed them.
In 1999, the New York Times reported:
“A family-owned alcohol importer based in New Rochelle, N.Y., has agreed to pay $2.6 million to 104 women who charge that they were sexually harassed by the 79-year-old owner and president of the company, according to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The company, Sidney Frank Importing, which has been in the alcohol importing industry for 20 years, and its marketing arm, All State Promotions, did not admit any wrongdoing. ''The mounting costs of litigation and the desire to put these issues behind it were cited by the company as reasons for the settlement,'' said a statement released by Marcia Horowitz, a spokeswoman for the company, which employs 1,100 people across the country.
The E.E.O.C. said the settlement was the largest of its kind ever arranged in New York State.
The lawsuit accuses the owner, Sidney Frank, of offering female employees clothing, trips and job opportunities in return for sexual favors.
Now, a new mega-donor has emerged, and GoLocal takes a look.
On GoLocal on Sunday.