MultiFest Co-Founder Faces Charge

{Charleston, West Virginia}…Deborah S. Starks, the co-founder and treasurer of MultiFest, has been charged with purposely under-reporting her 2008 income as less than $14,000. Federal prosecutors allege her taxable income was greatly above that amount. Currently held on the state Capitol grounds, MultiFest offers a mix of food, arts, crafts, music and other entertainments one weekend each summer. Signs that Multifest was having financial difficulty surfaced earlier this year when Kanawha County commissioners agreed to pay the festival $11,500 after the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau slashed its budget for the event. Commissioners elected to pay the bill directly after discovering that Multifest's corporate status was revoked in 1999 and reinstated only last year. Secretary of State Natalie Tennant sent Multifest organizers a letter in August 2011 saying that the festival was not properly recognized as a charitable organization and should not be soliciting donors. Starks said in a special meeting with the commission she thought the problems had been corrected.