Ako Abdul-Samad Is A Democratic Candidate For State Representative From Des Moines. Black Panther resigned from the CIETC Board after the scandal broke.

He is the CEO/Founder of Creative Visions Human Development Center in Des Moines. State budget analysts have also raised questions about the way Creative Visions has handled its share of taxpayer money. A new report from Iowa Workforce Development cites these problems:

* Creative Visions was supposed to partner with five colleges that would then evaluate the program's effectiveness. State officials found no evidence of such a partnership. Abdul-Samad said Monday the partnership exists, although no program evaluation was ever conducted. "And I didn't know that," he said. "The buck stops with me."