James O’Keefe may be ready to quit Project Veritas, but the Veritas board isn’t ready to say goodbye to James O’Keefe.

The Project Veritas Board of Directors responded to Mr. O’Keefe’s Monday departure by saying it “wants to work things out with James” while accusing him of misusing donor funds with his “excessive” spending.

Board members also insisted that they never fired him, but rather suspended him indefinitely from his role as CEO of the undercover journalism outlet over growing concerns about his treatment of staff and “financial malfeasance that has been discovered, which requires us to act in order to remain in compliance with the law.”

“Although PV Leadership has not concluded looking into the full scale of financial issues over the years, a preliminary review at this time indicates that James has spent an excessive amount of donor funds in the last three years on personal luxuries,” said the board.

Examples cited included $14,000 for a charter flight to fix his boat; $150,000 for private “Black Cars,” and $60,000 for dance events, as well as “Thousands of dollars spent on a DJ and other equipment for personal use” and “Hundreds of other acts of personal inurement.”

“More is still being uncovered during the ongoing review at this time,” said the board. “Contrary to many reports from today, James was suspended indefinitely pending the resolution of a fulsome investigation and clarity which will need to be provided by a third party investigative audit report.”

The board said it made “numerous attempts in the last 14 days to have a conversation with James, but he ignored our outreach.” 

“Even with all of this public fallout, the Board still wants to speak with James,” said the statement. “We did not fire him, nor do we want him to resign. We would like to continue conversations with James to resolve internal matters rather than litigate them publicly.”