ACORN’s Tax Fraud

An internal memo inside ACORN depicts a group quite worried over the fact that they may be investigated for tax fraud for accepting donations from a non-existent front group they run called Project Vote. The New York Times with the story:

The June 18 report, written by Elizabeth Kingsley, a Washington lawyer, spells out her concerns about potentially improper use of charitable dollars for political purposes; money transfers among the affiliates; and potential conflicts created by employees working for multiple affiliates, among other things.

It also offers a different account of the embezzlement of almost $1 million by the brother of Acorn’s founder, Wade Rathke, than the one the organization gave in July, when word of the theft became public.

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Ms. Kingsley’s concerns about the way Acorn affiliates work together could fuel the controversy over Acorn’s voter registration efforts, which are largely underwritten by an affiliated charity, Project Vote. Project Vote hires Acorn to do voter registration work on its behalf, and the two groups say they have registered 1.3 million voters this year.

As a federally tax-exempt charity, Project Vote is subject to prohibitions on partisan political activity. But Acorn, which is a nonprofit membership corporation under Louisiana law, though subject to federal taxation, is not bound by the same restrictions.

Even juicier is the fact that the Project Vote executives are comprised entirely of ACORN employees AND those listed as Project Vote board members had no idea they were on the board and some didn’t even know what Project Vote was.

But George Hampton, who was listed as a board member from 1994 to 2006, said that while he had been a member of Acorn, he had never heard of Project Vote. “I don’t know anything about this,” Mr. Hampton said.

Cleo Mata, listed as a board member on tax forms from 1997 to 2006, also said she was not aware she was on the Project Vote board. “If that’s what you say,” Ms. Mata told a visitor to her home in Pasadena, Tex. “I tell you that I didn’t realize I was.”

One of the most oft used complaint against ACORN is the fact that they coordinate their national efforts at the local level, which, if the voter fraud charges are true, would bring about RICO charges. They deny this fact but this memo tells us that local ACORN organizations don’t hold their own board meetings and no minutes of any meetings are kept. If local leaders don’t hold meetings then direction must come from above….meaning the national organization.

Lets not forget the 800 grand Obama gave to ACORN for those efforts either.

Can anyone say RICO?

UPDATE

Look at the latest Obama associate:

Gov. Deval Patrick, a national co-chairman of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, teamed up with the Illinois senator to represent the controversy-plagued activist network ACORN in a 1993 case and secured money for the group in this year’s state budget, the Herald has learned.

Patrick secured a $33,000 grant for the Springfield branch of ACORN’s housing program in April. ACORN Housing New England Regional Director Theresa Naylor said the money was used for “foreclosure prevention.” She also said the agency’s housing arm has “nothing to do with” the voter registration program, which has been the subject of fraud allegations that have dogged Obama because of his ties to the group.

“We’re sister companies, but we’re two different organizations,” Naylor said.

In 1993, Patrick, then a Department of Justice lawyer, and Obama, as a private civil rights lawyer, teamed up to represent ACORN in a successful suit that forced Illinois officials to implement the “motor voter” law, which allows people to register to vote when they get a driver’s license.

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Republican National Committee spokeswoman Blair Latoff blasted Patrick, saying: “The fact that Gov. Deval Patrick would even consider rewarding ACORN with taxpayer dollars is astounding.”

Curt

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