Devon T. Horace, the former president of the Northeast Portland nonprofit Alberta Main Street, has been accused of stealing at least $100,000 from the group’s operating account while he led the agency, according to a probable cause affidavit. Alberta Main Street was established to support the neighborhood’s business district.
Horace, 31, appeared in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Wednesday morning with his lawyer, Raymond S. Tindell, and entered not guilty pleas to a 16-count indictment. The indictment charges him with four counts of first-degree aggravated theft, four counts of first-degree theft, one count of first-degree theft by deception, and seven counts of falsifying business records. He surrendered his U.S. Passport to the court and was allowed to live in Seattle and remain out of custody pending trial.
According to the affidavit, Horace, who served as president of Alberta Main Street from July 2021 to January 2023, solicited $100,000 in donations from Nike and $5,000 from the Portland Trail Blazers on behalf of the business district but then withdrew the funds from the district’s account. Horace directly diverted the donations from the district’s account to his personal account through online payments, the affidavit said.
The alleged embezzlement occurred over a year and a half, from June 2021 through January 2023, said Chidimma S. Mgbadigha, a Multnomah County deputy district attorney. Horace also made multiple unauthorized cash withdrawals of $3,000 to $7,000 from the agency’s accounts during his tenure as board president for no legitimate business purposes, falsified bank documents to try to hide his theft, and misled board members about the need to repay a $7,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan that already had been forgiven, according to the affidavit.
The alleged theft of the district’s funds was discovered by two members of Albina Main Street’s board of directors and a former board member in February 2023. One of the remaining board members, James Armstrong, a forensic accountant, helped reconcile the bank accounts and identify how the money was taken, according to the affidavit.
Horace has been active on social media, offering financial and business tips, and has previously worked for Nike and the Trail Blazers. He was named one of the “Forty Under 40” last year by the Portland Business Journal. He started his own financial consulting business, Horace Consulting, and posted videos on a YouTube channel sharing his personal finance and investing tips. In the videos, he discusses online business platforms, the basics of cryptocurrency, and 401K plans.
According to his LinkedIn page, he has been a principal in a venture capital start-up called Portland Seed Fund for the past year, conducting market research to evaluate potential companies and negotiating deals.
The prosecutor expressed concern that Horace could be duping others and urged a judge to require him to remain in Portland. Horace continues to hold positions of trust and has more than 100,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, where he offers financial advice, Mgbadigha said in court. She asked that he be put on GPS monitoring and disclose within seven days to any organization or person he consults with a copy of the state’s probable cause affidavit.
Horace’s lawyer stated that Horace recently returned from a trip to Spain to face the indictment. He moved to Seattle a year ago, Tindell said. Tindell argued for Horace to continue to reside in Seattle, stating that Horace had divested from all his involvement with businesses or nonprofits in Portland, has rented out his condominium in the city, and should be presumed innocent.
Circuit Judge Katherine Tennyson allowed Horace to live in Seattle but ordered that he appear in person for all his future court dates.
“I’m very worried about what’s going on here,” the judge said.
The judge adopted the prosecutor’s recommended conditions of release, placing Horace on GPS monitoring, requiring him to disclose the affidavit outlining the criminal allegations against him to all organizations that he works with within a week, and placing him on county pretrial supervision.
As they left the courtroom, Tindell and Horace declined to comment further on the allegations.
