The Middle East lobby J Street -- a tax-exempt 501(c)4 organization -- paid tens of thousands of dollars to a consulting firm co-owned by its founder and president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, according to internal documents obtained by The Washington Times.

The documents, including invoices sent to J Street, show that Ben-Or Consulting -- the Tel Aviv-based public-relations firm Mr. Ben-Ami co-founded in 1998 while living in Israel -- charged J Street at least $56,000 over a roughly six-month period.

Though Mr. Ben-Ami ceased a day-to-day managerial role with Ben-Or a decade ago, he remains a 15 percent shareholder in the company, according to the May 2010 Dun and Bradstreet listings, as well as current filings with the Israeli Ministry of Justice.

According to nonprofit analysts, Mr. Ben-Ami's stake creates a conflict of interest that runs afoul of ethical -- if not legal -- restrictions on acts of "self-dealing," in which an officer in a tax-exempt organization receives undue benefit from that organization's transactions.

"Even if it's technically legal, it gets very messy when you have these sorts of deals going on because, if you're going to benefit on the other end of it, be it 100 percent or 5 percent, it raises questions about objectivity and the arms' length in the transaction," said Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator...