Best Buy Founder Denounces Anti-Islam Ads
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- The founder of Best Buy has directed his investment firm to cut off any further donations to a conservative nonprofit group that distributed inflammatory anti-Muslim videos on social media.
Olympus Ventures said in a statement Friday that Richard Schulze was unaware the organization, Secure America Now, had distributed the ads when the firm made a 2016 contribution to the group. Olympus Ventures, which manages Schulze's investments, says he has strongly condemned the group's ads.
The Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group, first reported that Olympus Ventures and former Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson each contributed $25,000 to Secure America Now in 2016.
Anderson tells Minnesota Public Radio, where he's a board member, that he didn't know about the videos before contributing to Secure America Now and wouldn't have donated if he had known.
The Minnesota chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations has called on Anderson to step down from the boards of Minnesota Public Radio and General Mills.
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