Durham Reporter

Durham-based Self Help Credit Union last month said it is hiring for a position that would help spend a share of a $6.97 billion "climate change" grant received by Self-Help and two organizations who are members of the “Climate United Fund (CUF.)”

Self-Help’s job posting said the “Climate Capital Director” position would be responsible for “developing and executing investment initiatives aligned with the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF).

The NCIF was created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law in 2023 by President Joe Biden (D) as part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers the program and has selected three organizations—CUF, the Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities—to distribute the funds. The NCIF was created to take federal taxpayer dollars to finance projects Self-Help said focus on “climate resilience” and “environmental justice.”

CUF, of which Self-Help Ventures Fund, a Self-Help affiliate, is a member, was awarded $6.97 billion under the NCIF, making it the largest recipient of funding from the program. CUV also includes the groups Calvert Impact and the Community Preservation Corporation. 

“Climate United Fund’s program will focus on investing in harder-to-reach market segments like consumers, small businesses, small farms, community facilities, and schools—with at least 60% of its investments in low-income and disadvantaged communities, 20% in rural communities, and 10% in Tribal communities,” said an EPA press release. 

That press release said Self-Help Ventures Fund is already a “U.S. Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI).” It is in that role as a CDFI that Self-Help Ventures Fund was the topic of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by Federal Newswire in November 2024. 

The FOIA request sought communications between CDFI Fund at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and representatives of Self-Help Ventures fund and affiliated entities. The FOIA request followed an Oct. 29 Federal Newswire report that Christopher Allison, program manager for the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program at the CDFI Fund, is a former employee of Self-Help Ventures Fund, an affiliate of Durham, NC-based Self-Help Credit Union. 

Both Self-Help Ventures Fund and Self-Help Credit Union have received over $502 million from the CDFI Fund. 

The FOIA request sought all communications—including written, electronic, and phone records—between any and all staff at the CDFI and any employees or representatives of Self-Help Credit Union, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, Self-Help Ventures Fund, and/or the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) from 2020 through the present.

Each of those Self-Help entities, plus CRL, were founded by Durham resident Martin Eakes.

CRL has received more than $2 million from left wing political activist George Soros, and more than $25 million from a foundation started by a N.C. couple who Time Magazine ranked among “25 people to blame from the (2008) financial crisis.” Eakes is the registered agent for at least 65 different single-member limited liability companies (LLCs) in North Carolina. Many of the LLC have near identical names, such as Self-Help Investor III, Self-Help Investor IX, and Self-Help Investor X, and so on. 

Eakes also served on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion. That committee is under scrutiny for potential conflicts of interest related to "Operation Choke Point 2.0." 

The original “Operation Choke Point” initiative, launched during the Obama administration in 2013, pressured banks to sever ties with businesses deemed "high-risk" by regulators, including payday lenders and gun dealers. 

"Operation Choke Point 2.0" refers to an alleged initiative by U.S. government agencies to restrict banking services for cryptocurrency and certain tech industries. 

In terms of the NCIF, Republicans on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan about the members’ “oversight concerns” about the NCIF and its parent fund, the GGRF.

“Some have flagged that the EPA could use this program to subsidize favored special interest organizations,” said the letter. “Others have alleged that current EPA appointees have ties to potential recipients of these sizable awards, raising ethical concerns.” 

Eakes, in a press release announcing his group’s $6.79 billion grant award from the EPA, said, "The significance of this investment cannot be overstated.” 

As of publication time, the most recent news releases on CUF’s web site announced a $30 million program to fund “clean energy” projects in “low-income communities” and a plan to spend $250 million to buy “up to 500 class 8 electric trucks,” which CUF said would be the “largest single order of electric trucks in U.S. history.”

There have been no new press releases on the CUF site since Nov. 19, 2024.