Dante once said, “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.”  It’s time for us in recovery to speak out about the avarice and greed that has permeated our recovery community.  What I’m talking about is the alarming indictments that have been announced about two leading agencies in our Minnesota recovery family, namely Evergreen and Kyros.  And now it has been revealed that another leading treatment provider is under investigation for double billing, DHS.

Although ethics is a required block of instruction in Peer Recovery Coaching, apparently these teachings have been lost or forgotten with the leadership of the aforementioned agencies.  It has been revealed that executive salaries in these organizations have ranged from $400K to $700K.  This is outrageous and goes beyond the pale.  A teacher in Minnesota makes between $40K-$65K a year. The average salary of a LADC is $57K. An FBI agent makes $80K a year and the Governor of Minnesota makes a salary of approximately $120K a year. And yet these executive officers from these fraudulent agencies are making salaries that are commensurate with Wall Street brokers or Silicon Valley software engineers.

How does this affect all of us?

We all do better when we all do better.These charlatans have sucked up money that could have been used by legitimate providers of services like our Recovery Community Organizations. At a recent meeting of the Minnesota Alliance of Recovery Community Organizations – MARCO, the RCOs in attendance stated that one of their biggest problems was finding funding for their services. When over $43 million dollars and potentially more have been spent on fraudulent recovery services, imagine how 10% of that money could have helped our community RCOs.

Additionally, public trust has been shaken and eroded by the acts of these unethical leaders implementing profit-based practices fueled by avarice and greed. These fraudsters have forgotten they were in the business of helping others, not the business of helping themselves.  By their illegal, profit motivated tactics, they have made it harder for those in the field who are doing legitimate recovery services. Moreover, our friends in the hallowed halls of the Minnesota State Capitol have been forced to look at the recovery community with suspicion and apprehension. These fraudsters have made it harder for the legitimate recovery organizations and treatment centers to obtain funding.

How could this have happened?

The Commissioner of DHS should have been made aware of this by her staff.  When hundreds of thousands of dollars are going out the door to just a couple of providers it should have raised alarm bells within the agency. Additionally, the AG’s office should have flagged these agencies when they filed their 990s. Sadly, both departments ignored the red flags. The signs were there, but they had set up a system that doesn’t talk to each other. In the corporate world they refer to this phenomenon as “silos of excellence”. Concrete structures that are virtually impregnable where information neither comes in nor goes out. Additionally, DHS incentivized this fraudulent behavior. They put zero cap on the nonprofit executive salaries thereby enticing the agencies to steal as much money as they could. It was the moral equivalent of leaving the car running with the doors unlocked. You are just asking for someone to take it.

Benjamin Franklin said so long ago, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  If we are to heed this sage advice, how can we avoid this in the future?

• First, every year a nonprofit must file the IRS form 990. It has to be filed with the Revenue Department. The 990 shows the salaries of the executive officers of the nonprofit.  Any 990 that shows executive compensation that exceeds the Governor’s salary should be flagged for audit.
• Second, in addition to the Revenue Department receiving the 990, the Attorney General’s office must also receive a copy. Again, any 990 that shows executive compensation that exceeds the Governor’s salary should be flagged for audit.
• Third, the MN legislature needs to enact legislation that caps executive salaries in nonprofits that receive state funding.  Any nonprofit that receives funding from the state should not have executive salaries that exceed the Governor’s salary.
• Finally, we need to raise the minimum standard for Certified Peer Recovery Specialists to a least two years of recovery time. The first year of recovery is so fraught with challenges and changes that it is unrealistic to think that someone upon their 366^th day of recovery now has the internal strength, wisdom, and theoretical knowledge to help someone else navigate the recovery landscape. Moreover, having these newly sober individuals in the field rendering services that are eligible for reimbursement is only asking for problems when it comes to issues of fraudulent billing. They are barely sober themselves and now they have supervisors who are telling them to put down questionable, unethical and illegal information upon the billing form. It is a recipe for disaster, and it has rendered disastrous results.  

In conclusion, the nonprofit recovery sector faces unique challenges. Public trust has been shaken and eroded by unethical leaders implementing profit-based practices, rather than recovery-based strategies. We need strong internal controls, fostering transparency, and ensuring rigorous oversight to win back public and legislative trust. By taking proactive measures, recovery nonprofits can win back public trust and continue their mission of making a positive impact in our recovery communities.

As the late, great MN Senator Paul Wellstone was found of saying, “We all do better when we all do better.”

—Maj. John G. Donovan, M.Ed., U.S. Army, Ret. 

Major Donovan is a person in long-term recovery with 46 years of sobriety. He volunteers at The Retreat teaching a monthly workshop on the Steps and Sponsorship. He is the author of the book, “A Soldiers Recovery Journey” and he is a contributing author to Hazelden’s Daily Meditation book entitled, “Leave No One Behind.”  His monthly podcast on recovery is entitled “Veterans 4 Recovery” and can be found on the “Coming Home Well” network.  We may earn a commission via some of the links on this page, at no cost to you.