The not-for-profit Sail America Foundation has been...

The not-for-profit Sail America Foundation has been funneling money into bank accounts of directors and officers, including Stars & Stripes skipper Dennis Conner, according to a Times of London report.

The article also alleged that Sail America, which is seeking $10 million to fund a September defense against New Zealander Michael Fay, began 1988 owing $2 million to creditors from its successful 1986-87 campaign in Australia.

Sail America President Malin Burnham, in a prepared statement released Friday, said the article was “inaccurate both in substance and tone.”

Tom Ehman, executive vice president of Sail America, said that an IRS investigation of Sail America referred to in the article was a “routine audit” that began in December and was limited to returns filed for 1985.

During that year, Conner earned $175,000 in consulting fees, according to copies of the filings provided Friday by Sail America. Sail America also paid $69,000 to executive administrator Sandy Purdon, and $146,597 to Sail America trustee John Marshall for his work as design coordinator.

Ehman described those payments as “completely comparable” to those paid by most of the American syndicates connected with the 1986-87 challenge in Freemantle, Australia.