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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee has asked local law enforcement to look into financial transactions involving its former executive director.
GIPC Chairman Murray Clark confirmed Friday morning that the organization, a private not-for-profit advisory group that works closely with city officials and has an office in the City-County Building, asked for an investigation after the March departure of former Executive Director Matt Hendrix.
“After he left, we discovered some things that impacted GIPC and asked the police to investigate it,” said Clark, a partner at Faegre Baker Daniels.
Hendrix has not been charged with a crime, and Clark declined to provide details of the problem that GIPC uncovered. It was not immediately clear which law enforcement agency, if any, was investigating the matter.
Hendrix could not be reached Friday morning.
He joined GIPC in 2008 as a deputy director after working as publisher of the Lebanon Daily Sun and a reporter at the Boone County Reporter. He was named executive director of GIPC in 2009 as one of two staff members.
His position is being filled in the interim by John Ryan, who was a deputy under former Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut and a top staffer in the administration of former Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Clark said GIPC remains solvent.
“If there is a financial loss to GIPC, I know it will be unfortunate, but it will not have a meaningful impact on the entity,” he said.
GIPC’s most recent tax return for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, showed net assets of about $650,000. Total expenses that year were $324,537, and they exceeded revenue by $1,077.
The organization spent $122,270 on salaries and benefits, according to the statement, which was filed with the IRS in February.
Clark declined to discuss the reason Hendrix left GIPC in early March.
“We came to a parting of the ways,” he said.
At the time, GIPC’s board of directors did not have the information that later led it to contact police, Clark said.
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