Timeline of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Atlanta:
April 2016: Pro rata settlements are reached between Yunus Creative Lab, the non-profit hosting the event, and 13 of the sponsors, including the Fulbright Association which had sued to reclaim its money. Negotiations are on-going with the city of Atlanta.
October: The Fulbright Association sues to reclaim its sponsorship.
June: Atlanta loses the summit; it is awarded to Barcelona.
May: The Atlanta Rotary Club considers an 11th hour attempt to save the event by taking over its management. The move comes after The Permanent Secretariat issues a letter to Atlanta summit organizers, warning local leaders that the event could be held elsewhere unless they resolve conflicts in about a week.
May: Jason Carter, grandson of President Jimmy Carter, Laura Turner Seydel, daughter of media mogul Ted Turner, and Willis Potts, former chair of the Georgia Board of Regents, leave Yunus Creative Lab board of directors.
April 2015: Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus resigned as chairman of his namesake nonprofit.
March 2015: Reed notifies Mohammad Bhuiyan, CEO of Yunus Creative Lab, that he's withdrawing the city's participation in the event due to conflict with Bhuiyan over event management.
December 2014: Mayor Kasim Reed and Laura Turner Seydel fly to Rome, the site of the 2014 world summit, to officially invite Nobel laureates to Atlanta in 2015.
October 2013: The Permanent Secretariat of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates designates Atlanta, via the nonprofit Yunus Creative Lab, the host city for the 2015 world summit.
The organization that raised $1.3 million in a failed effort to bring the 2015 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates to Atlanta has reimbursed all the companies and individuals that signed on as sponsors for the event, according to the nonprofit’s law firm.
The only sponsor that has not reached a settlement is the city of Atlanta, which provided $25,000 through the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport Authority.
The summit was supposed to be the largest gathering of Nobel peace laureates in history, and the largest global event in Atlanta since the 1996 Olympic Games. But it fell apart after YCL president Mohammad Bhuivan repeatedly clashed with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and others trying to organize the event.
The reimbursements from Yunus Creative Lab, Inc. were given on a pro rata basis after expenses were taken out, according to an April 20 letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which was sent to attendees of a gala fundraiser for the event. Individuals who attended the gala also received a small reimbursement of about $100 each.
One of the disagreements involved Reed wanting YCL to transfer the sponsorship money to The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta — a move Bhuivan said would be expensive and unnecessary.
The mayor, who has said he received complaints about Bhuivan from several prominent community members, eventually yanked the city’s sponsorship and forbid the city logo from being used in relation to the summit.
Reed’s office declined to comment Wednesday on the reimbursements.
YCL hired the accounting firm Moore Stephens Tiller to review the expenses paid with sponsorship money. That review found none of the cash missing or misused, according to an April 15 letter to YCL chairman Raktim Sen.
“When this effort began, YCL established a financial oversight structure to ensure that funds contributed for the benefit of the summit were properly handled,” the letter says. “The structure that was originally established to ensure the proper handling of the funds has never been altered or diminished.
“The YCL board, in consultation with its corporate counsel, accountant [and] attorneys, has carefully evaluated all expenses and obligations … and has reached the final number of dollars that could be used to refund to all sponsors and donors.”
Those expenses, according to the letter, include paying for the gala, operational costs, legal fees and penalties related to canceling hotel and convention center bookings. Bhuiyan and his wife Shamima Amin, who served as chief operating officer, were not paid for nearly two years of work in trying to organize the event. Both took unpaid leave of absences as administrators at Tuskegee University to work on the summit.
“My wife and I value and live by the principles of honesty, integrity, transparency and helping others,” Bhuiyan said. “We are very pleased to report that we have refunded money … and all issues have been resolved to [the sponsors’] full satisfaction.”
Attorney John H. Goselin said individual refund amounts are confidential, and he would not disclose the total amount of money refunded to the 13 sponsors, which includes a settlement with the Fulbright Association, which had sued YCL to get it's money back.
Both Goselin and a city spokeswoman confirmed that settlement negotiations are underway for the last remaining sponsorship.
“… Each resolution was to the mutual satisfaction of both parties,” Goselin said.
The summit imploded last year in spectacular fashion, with Reed yanking the city's support and Bhuiyan claiming that the mayor was attempting to bully him into hiring a friend as event coordinator. Along the way were resignations from YCL board members — including namesake and chairman Muhammad Yunus, who won the prize in 2006 and originally suggested bringing the event to Atlanta.
A last ditch effort to save the event by having the Atlanta Rotary Club take over ultimately failed, and the event was cancelled just five months before it was scheduled to begin.
Bob Hope, a long-time Atlanta public relations guru who volunteered his services for the summit, said he hopes the settlements bring an end to the saga.
“It destroyed a lot of credibility around town,” Hope said. “It was just a painful deal, in every way.”
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