Gores, an American billionaire who runs Beverly Hills private equity firm Platinum Partners and owns the Detroit Pistons NBA team, told the LACMA board on Thursday that he has resigned, effective immediately, from his position on the board.
“The simple answer is: You don’t,” Gores wrote in the letter. “Effective immediately, I resign my position on the board and forgo all ties to the institution.“We didn’t know when we acquired Securus that it would become a nexus for addressing the political, social, racial and economic issues roiling America today,” Gores added. “But now that we are here, we will not shy away from the hard work ahead. We’ve made substantial progress but there is more to do.
While Gores has insisted on reform efforts for the company and a representative of Platinum Equity told WWD last month that it plans to “eventually” divest from Securus; only a few months ago the company was sued for its pricing practices. Securus is accused of charging effectively $1 a minute for calls by inmates, either with a flat rate offer of $10 or $15 for calls up to that number of minutes, or by the minute.