The Kaiser foundation is one of just four public foundations in the U.S. with more than $1 billion in assets, according to the Washington-based National Center for Charity Statistics. David Scott Sloan, the chairman of the national estate planning practice at Holland & Knight in Boston, said that in his 25 years of advising clients on charity and trust structures, he can’t recall one who has asked about establishing a public charity.

The George Kaiser Family Foundation makes donations through the Tulsa Community Foundation, a nonprofit organization the billionaire co-founded in 1998 and was chairman of until February 2007. The public charity is required by the IRS to have an independent board, with the majority of the members chosen by the 29-member board of the Tulsa Community Foundation. The Kaiser foundation has a three-member board and, according to its tax returns, gives Kaiser the right to appoint its directors, although the charity says he has not done so.

Three Directors

“If there is an independent board of directors, then really the investments are OK,” said Hopkins. “The two people picked by the community foundation should not have any business or family connection with him because if they did they would be deemed part of his control group and then he would be deemed to be in control.”

Of the three Kaiser Foundation directors -- all of whom were chosen by the Tulsa Community Foundation during Kaiser’s tenure as chairman -- one is Dorwart, who is also secretary at BOK Financial Corp., a Kaiser-controlled bank holding company. His law firm -- Frederic Dorwart, Lawyers -- provides legal services to Kaiser’s companies, according to Dorwart.

A second board member is Phil Lakin, a Tulsa city councilman and chief executive of the Tulsa Community Foundation. He was the organization’s first employee, and has collected more than $1.5 million in compensation since 2006, the first year the details of his pay were disclosed.

Dorwart, Frohlich

In his 2011 city council election campaign, Lakin raised $82,090 in donations, according to filings with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Kaiser gave Lakin his first donation for that election -- $2,500 on June 27 -- followed four days later by $2,000 from BOK Financial’s political action committee. Kaiser’s son and nine executives from Kaiser’s companies gave an additional $6,550. Dorwart and his colleagues gave $5,000.

“It should not surprise anyone that those who knew him best were active in his campaign,” Ken Levit, executive director of the Kaiser charity, said in an e-mail. He said $13,000 in donations came from people who work with Lakin at the charities.

The George Kaiser Family Foundation’s third director is Phil Frohlich, founder and owner of Prescott Group Capital Management LLC, a Tulsa-based fund manager with $521 million in assets under management as of the end of 2012, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.