Anuradha Mittal/PHOTO: S. Martin (CC)
It took five years, a corporate spin-off, and a damning financial audit, but the corporate owners of Ben & Jerry’s have finally reached the same conclusion that NLPC reached in 2021: Anuradha Mittal is unfit to lead.
The latest news out of Unilever‘s spin-off of its ice cream brands is explosive. As reported by Reuters, an audit conducted by the new “Magnum” corporation found severe deficiencies in financial controls at the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, which controls much decision-making for the corporate brand (a foolish decision by Unilever decades ago when it purchased Ben & Jerry’s). Consequently, the spin-off Magnum — which started operating independently of Unilever this week — has stated that its chairwoman, Mittal, is no longer fit to serve.
For NLPC, this is not “news”—it is history repeating itself.
In a series of investigative reports starting in 2021, NLPC documented the questionable governance and radical activities of Mittal. While the mainstream business press focused on the brand’s flavor names, we looked at the 990 tax forms. What we found was a pattern of behavior that should have raised red flags in any compliance department.
The Self-Dealing Scandal: NLPC broke the story that the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, with Mittal as a trustee, had funneled roughly $170,000 to the Oakland Institute. The problem? Mittal is the Executive Director of the Oakland Institute and draws a salary from it. We argued that this was a textbook case of self-dealing—using charitable funds entrusted to her care to subsidize her own employer.
We didn’t just write about it; we filed a formal complaint with the IRS, detailing how Mittal appeared to violate laws prohibiting trustees from personally benefiting from foundation grants.
The Radical Agenda: Beyond the financials, NLPC exposed the extreme ideology driving Mittal’s decisions. Under her leadership, the brand moved from quirky social responsibility to hardline political advocacy. We highlighted her connections to anti-Israel extremism, pointing out that her “think tank” often pushed rhetoric that crossed the line into antisemitism. In fact, following our exposure of her record, she was named “Antisemite of the Year” by a prominent watchdog group.
The Corporate Headache: We also warned Unilever that allowing an “independent board” to be hijacked by political activists would cause irreparable harm to the parent company. We were right. The board has since sued Unilever twice, most recently over the brand’s desire to issue statements on Gaza that Unilever deemed “one-sided advocacy.”
Now, with the ice cream brands being spun off into the standalone Magnum corporation, the new leadership wants to clean house. They cite “good governance” as the reason for the audit that exposed these financial flaws. But this isn’t just about good governance now; It’s about correcting years of negligence.
Mittal claims she will not resign, setting the stage for a final showdown between the activist board and the corporate owners.
You can view the full archive of our investigations into Anuradha Mittal here and Ben & Jerry’s here.
When the history of this brand’s meltdown is written, it will show that the warning signs were there all along. NLPC provided the roadmap. Unilever is only now, five years too late, deciding to read it.
