PORTLAND, Ore. -- A financial dispute is brewing among Occupy Portland protesters after at least $10,000 was suddenly transferred out of the group's donation fund into a new bank account opened by newly formed non-profit 'Occupy Portland Incorporated.'
The radical movement protesting corporate structure is now exactly what they are protesting. Articles of incorporation were filed with the Oregon Secretary of State's office registering the anti-corporation group of protesters as 'Occupy Portland Inc.'
Volunteer media liaison for Occupy Portland, Reid Parham, said two members of the Occupy Portland movement moved the money and started a corporation without consent of the General Assembly (GA), the group of protesters who meet nightly to discuss the direction of the movement.
Reid said Bryan Howarth and Reid Jackson were on Occupy Portland's finance committee, but did not get approval of the group before making the decision to move the money.
The financial disagreement also lead the group to temporarily lose control of their domain 'occupyportland.org' forcing them to use 'occupypdx.org' as their official site when one of the members bought the group's domain name.
Jordan LeDoux, another volunteer media liaison, said the dispute over the website has been resolved, but the Occupy Portland official website will remain occupypdx.org.
Parham said the GA voted Monday night to form a new financial committee but the details of that have not been worked out yet.
Several protesters said they do not think the members who transfered the money and took control of the Occupy Portland domain did not do it with malicious intent, but said this disagreement over the donation fund must be resolved soon.
LeDoux said the financial issue will be discussed at Tuesday nights GA meeting at the Occupy campsite.
Protesters at Tuesday evening's rally in Pioneer Courthouse Square said the members who started the non-profit and moved the money did so because of tax reasons.
