A Washington, D.C., Superior Court judge has found that Terrence J. Boyle, a former longtime officer of Delta Phi Epsilon—a national foreign service fraternity at Georgetown University—took control of the nonprofit organization and its related Delta Phi Epsilon Foundation for Foreign Service Education, using their assets for his personal benefit, the Washington Post reports.

The ruling by judge Shana Frost Matini found that Boyle—who pledged the fraternity at Georgetown in 1963 and was long involved in the fraternity and its foundation’s financial management—used $150,000 of foundation assets to purchase a $345,000 home for himself in 1990. Matini also found that Boyle oversaw the sale of the fraternity’s 80-year-old Georgetown chapter house, first arranging—without proper authorization—for the fraternity to donate the property to the foundation in May 2021, then selling the property to a third party for $2.6 million a month later, well below its appraised value of more than $4 million. Boyle resigned as an officer of the foundation and fraternity in 2021.

According to the Washington Post, the ruling—based on allegations whose underlying facts were not in serious dispute—represents a partial victory for Washington, D.C., attorney general Karl A. Racine (D), whose office filed a civil complaint against Boyle in June 2021. The court did not order any remedies as part of its judgment. The remaining allegations will proceed to trial.

“Nonprofits receive substantial tax benefits because these organizations, and the people who manage them, are legally required to operate in a manner that is consistent with the organization’s public mission (the public good), not for private benefit.” said Racine.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia/Patrick Neil)