The former directors of three Southwest Washington nonprofits have been ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in restitution, following a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Bob Ferguson that alleged the misuse of charitable funds.
A Clark County Superior Court judge approved the judgment Nov. 7 against Ophelia Noble, who founded the Noble Foundation alongside her father, Douglas Noble, and the foundation’s former directors, according to a news release from the Attorney General’s Office.
The office’s investigation revealed that Noble and other family members misused charitable funds to buy a house, two cars and pay their own living expenses.
“Noble failed to account for more than $1 million of the foundation’s charitable funds in violation of Washington’s Nonprofit Corporation Act,” a news release from the office states. “Examples of Noble’s misuse of charitable funds include paying herself hundreds of thousands of dollars, using charity money to buy a vehicle for her personal use, and directing The Noble Foundation to buy her father’s house and reselling it to her at a deep discount.”
Ophelia Noble and Douglas Noble first opened the Noble Foundation in 2012 to serve communities of color in Vancouver, Kelso and Longview.
During the pandemic, Ophelia Noble opened Our Place Multicultural Center and Southwest Washington Communities United for Change.
The three charities took in more than $1.5 million in funding from philanthropic organizations, including the Northwest Health Foundation, Social Justice Fund Northwest, the Satterberg Foundation, the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington, Group Health/Inatai Foundation and the Seattle Foundation, according to the attorney general’s office.
The judge’s order requires Ophelia Noble and the other directors — Douglas Noble, Alice Prejean (Ophelia Noble’s mother), Joann Hampton and Alyce Noble (Ophelia Noble’s daughter) — to jointly pay $25,000 for the misuse of the funds.
Ophelia Noble must sell the house and car she purchased with the funds and repay the proceeds, which is about $400,000, the news release states.
That money will cover part of the cost of the attorney general’s investigation and be used toward future enforcement of laws protecting charitable assets, according to the news release.
Ophelia Noble is also banned for life from operating or managing a charity in Washington. The other directors are banned from managing a charity in Washington for the next 10 years.
The remaining $1 million in civil penalties are suspended if Ophelia Noble and the other directors comply with the terms of the judgment. If they do not, they will be required to pay the $1 million, plus interest, the news release said.
“Ophelia Noble and the charities’ directors failed the communities they were supposed to serve,” Ferguson said in the news release. “My office will continue to be a watchdog ensuring that charities follow the law.”
