Subject: Questions about AIDS Ride $$$
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 15:11:42 -0400

ACT UP Washington DC
The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
phone 202.547.6780    fax 202.547.6782   e [email-masked]
August 1, 1996      MEDIA ALERT    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HIV+ activists call on US Attorney to investigate  AIDS Ride
"This is sounding more and more like a pyramid scheme." 
Washington, DC -- The AIDS advocacy organization ACT UP in Washington DC has
called for an investigation into the business practices of Pallota and
Associates, a California-based, for profit corporation that produced the
Philadelphia to DC AIDS Bicycle Ride.  

 In a letter dated July 31, 1996 to US Attorney Eric Holder, ACT UP
Washington expressed concerns that funds raised by the AIDS Ride, held June
21-23, have yet to be dispersed to local AIDS service providers.  In
addition, ACT UP cited newspaper accounts from Philadelphia revealing that
less than 10% of the gross receipts from the AIDS Ride, reported by
organizers as $4.5 million, will actually make its way to community-based
organizations.

 Activists are alarmed that high administrative costs of the AIDS Rides,
produced by Pallota and Associates throughout the country, drain local
communities of money intended to provide direct services to people with AIDS.

 States ACT UP's Steve Michael in the letter to Holder, "Hundreds of
individuals throughout Washington, DC devoted their time, effort, and energy
to raise money for AIDS services.  They did it for people with AIDS...not for
the personal benefit of a California-based private, for-profit business."
Activists call for a grassroots, locally-run, 
AIDS ride 
 ACT UP Washington suggests that a more grassroots organizing effort would
eliminate the expensive administrative and consulting fees of Pallota and
Associates.  "A coalition of local Gay sports clubs and AIDS organizations
can produce next year's AIDS Ride so that the money actually goes to
services.  Smaller AIDS service providers simply can't afford the up front
costs of producing these events.  They shouldn't be excluded."  Michael
comments.  ACT UP indicates that it is willing to facilitate such a process. 

 Michael adds, "The AIDS communities of Washington and Philadelphia know what
needs to be done.  Taking Pollatta out of the equation could mean people with
AIDS in Philadelphia and Washington would have a better shot at access to
water filters, food banks, dental programs, vitamins and medical care."

 Pallotta is requiring AIDS agencies to sign contracts for another AIDS Ride
next year. Pallotta is demanding that AIDS organizations pay an advance
$200,000 fee (for next year's event) before this year's funds are dispersed.
 Michael states, "Pallotta promises great riches in future years.  I
certainly hope they (AIDS organizations in DC and Philadelphia) will not be
duped into giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to what looks like nothing
more than Eric Pallotta's retirement fund."

 "This is sounding more and more like a pyramid scheme," adds Wayne Turner of
ACT UP Washington.

 The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Attorney General's office is currently
investigating Pallota and Associates and the Philadelphia to DC AIDS Ride.
 Senior Deputy Attorney General Mary Beth O'Hara Osborne told the
Philadelphia Inquirer, "We got some bank statements and additional
information...but it left us with a lot of questions."