Ric Grenell will have FBI, DOJ investigate alleged fraud at Kennedy Center

In a podcast appearance, Grenell said, “The last Kennedy Center administration, what we just found, and we're going to turn it over to DOJ and the FBI for an investigation. Our forensic new CFO went through the books for '24 and '25 we found $26 million in phantom revenue.”

Grenell went on to say that the previous leadership was “literally lying about how the finances were” and that the center has been paying staff with debt reserves, which were being saved up to pay off a large payment in 2030.

Grenell went on to say that Deborah Rutter, who was the previous president of the Kennedy Center, was lying to the press when she denied the claims of fraud.

Rutter had told reporters that she had established a “Sustainability Fund” to “cover potential shortfalls in operating revenue that could result from any number of economic circumstances,” according to the Washington Post. Although she claimed that there was $10 million in the fund when she left, Grenell hit back at this denial.

“Deborah Rutter lied again to the media. ... She renamed the debt financing to a different account — which this is all going to come out — she's calling it a different account. But she literally was digging into debt reserves for our balloon payment. And she's calling and saying, ‘Oh, we had 10 million.’ That money was supposed to be saved until we get to 2030. We were on a path to pay it down, little by little, to be able to make this payment. We're woefully behind because she renamed it and pretended like she had a new account of sustainability,” Grenell added.

Rutter claimed to the press that when she left the arts institution that it was “fiscally sound.”

Grenell, however, said that the Kennedy Center had been engaging in more art that was not attracting the general public, and said that after he was appointed president of the Center, he has been able to revamp the programming going on.

“When you bring in common-sense programming, then you can also do arts education later when you get a little money. I'm not looking to make money. I'm looking to make sure we don't lose money and lie to the board about where we are with our finances,” he said in the interview.