The Polaris Project, which oversees the hotline that whistleblowers say regularly fails to refer tips to law enforcement for investigation, has longstanding ties to the Department of Health and Human Services office that oversees its grant, raising concerns about whether the nonprofit is facing proper scrutiny for its contract.Polaris, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that administers the National Human Trafficking Hotline, has faced scrutiny from Congress in recent months after whistleblowers came forward alleging that the hotline was failing to report tips to law enforcement over several years, generating concerns from state attorneys general, Just the News previously reported…
Just a few years after standing up the project, Chon moved to government service in 2012 under the Obama administration, becoming the Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons for the Health Department. In this role she was responsible for assisting department leadership in developing and managing agency-wide human trafficking policy and, specifically, overseeing the grants to her old nonprofit.
Raising further conflicts of interest concerns, Chon married the Executive Director and longtime employee of the Polaris Project, Bradley Myles, in 2013—shortly after she was appointed to her new role at the Health Department, public reporting and the pair’s LinkedIn pages show.
“In 2013 Katherine Chon married the CEO who took over the Polaris Project after she left,” said Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt in a post to X. Leavitt’s whistleblower protection group is representing one of the anonymous whistleblowers.
“During her time at @HHSGov her office has approved tens of millions in taxpayer dollars going to the organization her husband led,” Leavitt continued.
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