Tom Gonzales - Commerce One Founder Sues East Bay Community Foundation

(Story reposted at the request of our own Robin Belker..)

Tom Gonzales, the co-founder of Commerce One, has filed a lawsuit to against East Bay Community Foundation of Oakland and to regain control of his son's charitable bequest in order to ensure that the tens of millions of dollars are spent as the younger Tom Gonzales wished. In this, the image of the East Bay Community Foundation has been damaged.

The East Bay Community Foundation was originally the receiver of a bequest of $23 million from the Gonzales Foundation,and it was to be controlled by EBCF. But distribution of the money has been on hold until various tax claims involving the Gonzales estate are resolved.

In a kind of fit, EBCF elected to sue the family just because EBCF has not received all of the money due to the tax matter. I guess they forgot who it belonged to. But in doing this, the reputation of the East Bay Community Foundation has been damaged because it seems like an awardee can't trust the East Bay Community Foundation to simply hang on and be a team player.

As for the elder Gonzales, he's protecting a fortune that was generated by the genius of his late son, who was the programming brains behind Commerce One in its heyday.