PARADISE, Calif. – A former board member of the Gold Nugget Museum is raising ethics concerns after discovering what he says is a more than $1 million discrepancy in the nonprofit’s financial records.Zack Connell served as treasurer on the Gold Nugget Museum board for more than two years, managing the museum’s financials during a remodel of its new building. The original building, along with most of its contents, burned down in the Camp Fire.”I was like, none of this is adding up,” Connell said.Connell said he discovered a more than $1 million difference between the museum’s books and their tax filings between 2019 and 2024. “When we went through our QuickBooks, we saw like deleted transactions, and so we didn’t we didn’t know what they were,” Connell said.Connell ultimately decided to resign from the board at the end of last month because of his concerns.”I couldn’t keep going,” Connell said. “We were being exposed to legation in more ways than one, and I did not want to be sued.”Action News Now reviewed the IRS filings, which confirm Connell’s claim that the expenses reported in tax filings between 2019 and 2024 add up to more than $1.3 million. Connell could not provide the internal records, explaining that he no longer has access to them after his resignation.Connell said those records show the board actually spent $2.5 million, with some transactions missing from the record and others that he believes are not in the museum’s best interest. “We went through that, and we saw an expense, it was like $400 at Fifth Street Steakhouse, and I was sitting there, and it was like, how does this contribute to advancement in the museum?” Connell said.Connell said he filed a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office, providing them with those financial records and asking them to investigate the board. He said he received confirmation of receipt from the Department of Justice and showed Action News Now evidence that he filed the claim.Connell said he was told by the DOJ that it will not provide updates if they decide to open an investigation. He said they typically try to resolve complaints within 60 days. It has now been just over a month since he filed his.Action News Now also spoke with two other anonymous sources familiar with the matter who made the same claims as Connell. “These are classed under whistleblower complaints,” Connell said. “At some point, the Department of Justice will tell the museum, you guys are being investigated.” Connell said to his knowledge, the museum has not been notified that they are being investigated. Action News Now reached out to the Attorney General’s Office and was told that, to protect the integrity of investigations, they are not able to comment on or even confirm or deny potential or ongoing investigations.Action News Now reached out to several board members and gave them a full week to respond to Connell’s claims. The board’s president, Rena Eley, said last week she would need to consult with her attorney before deciding if she could comment.Action News Now followed up with Eley and the board’s treasurer at the time of the alleged misuse of funds. Within a couple of hours of those calls and messages, Connell said board members came to the museum and had a locksmith open the door.Security footage provided to Action News Now by the museum’s executive director shows people there today. Eley said they have no comment on why they were there other than that they deny any accusation that they were committing any wrongdoing while there.Board members said at this moment, the board has no comment on Connell’s other claims. Connell said he remains hopeful his concerns will be addressed.”Growing up here, there is not a community that I know in the world that can make more of a ruckus than we can up here on this hill, and I’m very happy about that,” Connell said. “I encourage the community to come forward and do something about this, because I alone cannot do something about this.” No date has been set yet for the museum’s grand opening. Eley said the new board members must get up to speed before they can set one.
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