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ACORN’s Tangled Money Tree

Getting out the vote has never been such a racket.

(Page 2 of 3)

And even now after it was revealed earlier this year that ACORN founder Wade Rathke covered up his brother’s nearly $1 million embezzlement, Rathke remains chief organizer of ACORN affiliate SEIU Local 100, president of ACORN International Inc., and president and a director of ACORN affiliate Affiliated Media Foundation Movement Inc.

There are plenty of other examples of directors and officers playing musical chairs throughout the ACORN empire. (See Foundation Watch, November 2008.)

Commenting on ACORN’s complex administrative arrangements, Charlotte Allen observes in the Weekly Standard, “The potential for abuse in an interlocking arrangement governed top-down from New Orleans is as obvious as a thicket of ‘Change’ signs at an Obama rally.”

ACORN takes recycling seriously, at least when it comes to money.

My research determined that ACORN affiliate Project Vote paid ACORN $10,861,825 from 2000 through 2006. Project Vote also paid ACORN affiliate Citizens Services Inc. $1,206,942 in 2005 and 2006, and paid $1,266,967 to ACORN affiliate Citizens Consulting Inc. from 2000 through 2004.

Since 2000 the American Institute for Social Justice, Inc. paid ACORN $1,926,831, Citizens Consulting, Inc. $362,464, and ACORN Associates, Inc. $258,593.

On its 2002 tax form, the Institute disclosed a $1,684,184 “community reinvestment” grant to ACORN, along with a $9,637 loan to SEIU Local 100. (On the same document, the Institute also reported receiving a $50,000 interest-free loan from the Tides Foundation for “purchase of equipment,” and a $4,000 interest-free loan from Open Society Institute’s Progressive America Fund Inc.) In an LM-2 (labor union disclosure) form last year, SEIU Local 880 revealed that it gave $60,118 to ACORN for “membership services.”

On its 2006 tax form, the American Institute for Social Justice, Inc. disclosed that it provided a $4,952,288 “community reinvestment” grant to ACORN, the non-tax-exempt Arkansas nonprofit corporation that controls the ACORN network.

ACORN lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley raised the alarm about interlocking directorates and the perilously close ties between ACORN and Project Vote. As reported in the Oct. 22, 2008 New York Times story, Kingsley found:

[T]he tight relationship between Project Vote and Acorn made it impossible to document that Project Vote’s money had been used in a strictly nonpartisan manner. Until the embezzlement scandal broke last summer, Project Vote’s board was made up entirely of Acorn staff members and Acorn members.

Ms. Kingsley’s report raised concerns not only about a lack of documentation to demonstrate that no charitable money was used for political activities but also about which organization controlled strategic decisions.

She wrote that the same people appeared to be deciding which regions to focus on for increased voter engagement for Acorn and Project Vote. Zach Pollett, for instance, was Project Vote’s executive director and Acorn’s political director, until July, when he relinquished the former title. Mr. Pollett continues to work as a consultant for Project Vote through another Acorn affiliate.

“As a result, we may not be able to prove that 501(c)3 resources are not being directed to specific regions based on impermissible partisan considerations,” Ms. Kingsley said, referring to the section of the tax code concerning rules for charities.

She also found problems with governance of Acorn affiliates. “Board meetings are not held, or if they are, minutes are not kept, or if minutes are kept, they never make it into the files,” she wrote.

Project Vote, for example, had only one independent director since it received a federal tax exemption in 1994, and he was on the board for less than two years, its tax forms show. Since then, the board has consisted of Acorn staff members and two Acorn members who pay monthly dues.

Page:   12 3  

topics:
Election 2008, Economics

About the Author

Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative journalist at a conservative watchdog group in Washington, D.C. Vadum is also author of Subversion Inc: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (16) |

John Oliver | 10.31.08 @ 11:20AM

Yo man!

Serious. Where. Is. The. Crack cocaine?

rickyb| 10.31.08 @ 1:55PM

Let's hope charges come out of this mess for the people responsible for the corruption within ACORN and its effect on our economy and fair voting processes our country demands.

Pingback| 2.17.09 @ 5:52PM

Capital Research Center: links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…notorious secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, who openly defied federal election law last fall in accordance with ACORN’s wishes, is running for the U.S. Senate. as I recounted in the American Spectator. BlinkList |  del.icio.us  |  Digg it  |  Furl |  ma.gnolia  |  Yahoo |  Google |  StumbleUpon This entry was posted on Tuesday,…

Pingback| 6.3.09 @ 10:17AM

Biased PolitiFact.com Covers for ACORN, Attacks Michele Bachmann | Got Access News links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…needed to transform poor communities" And ACORN Housing discloses in its tax returns that it received more than $18 million in federal money from 1997 through 2006. Given the constant, well-documented shifting of funds within the nebulous ACORN network, how can Farley say with a straight face after his superficial examination of the facts that he knows for certain that federal tax dollars were not shifted…

Pingback| 7.25.09 @ 4:52PM

Community-Organized Crime Acorn Inside Out « Stop Socialism Now links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…from accountability by multiple layers of volunteers and compensated employees who serve as pawns to take the fall for every bad act.” The report examines the ACORN network’s abusive interlocking directorates, and claims that the group deliberately organized itself to escape legal and public scrutiny. “ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal…

Pingback| 9.21.09 @ 2:02PM

ACORN’S Useful Idiots | America Watches Obama links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…if federal funds were involved in ACORN’s electoral crime spree because ACORN’s finances are so incredibly convoluted. ACORN’s affiliates routinely write each other huge checks, moving money around like a South American drug lord. In Conason’s view, ACORN is such a wonderful, honest, organization that when its officials discovered cases of voter registration fraud, “they informed…

Pingback| 9.25.09 @ 10:11AM

Big Government » Blog Archive » ACORN’S Enron-Style Accounting: Playing Musical Chair links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…more than two corporations” simultaneously. (Heritage Foundation backgrounder, March 11, 1980) Go figure. (This article is an updated version of an article originally published by the American Spectator .) Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this | Tags: ACORN, ACORN International Inc., Affiliated Media/Foundation Movement, American Institute for Social Justice Inc., American…

Pingback| 9.25.09 @ 4:44PM

Prayer, News and Action » Uncategorized » ACORN’S Enron-Style Accounting: Playing Mus links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…for “serving more than two corporations” simultaneously. (Heritage Foundation backgrounder, March 11, 1980) Go figure. (This article is an updated version of an article originally published by the American Spectator .)   View article… Post Published: 25 September 2009 Author: admin Found in section: Uncategorized Previous Topic: ‘Pioneer of Guerrilla Marketing,’ Specialist in ‘Leveraging’ Arts Community…

Pingback| 9.29.09 @ 12:14AM

In the News « links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…News Release: 1851 Center Advises House Committee Modifying Mortgage Contracts Unconstitutional Miller v. ACORN Human Events: Ohio Secretary of State Linked to ACORN, Project Vote American Spectator: ACORN’s Tangled Money Tree Middletown Journal: ACORN sued on behalf of 2 Warren County voters WCPO TV-9: Lawsuit Filed Against ACORN In Warren County WCMH TV-4: ACORN Defends Efforts Amid Voter-Fraud…

Pingback| 9.29.09 @ 2:38PM

1851 in the News « links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…News Release: 1851 Center Advises House Committee Modifying Mortgage Contracts Unconstitutional   Miller v. ACORN Human Events: Ohio Secretary of State Linked to ACORN, Project Vote American Spectator: ACORN’s Tangled Money Tree Middletown Journal: ACORN sued on behalf of 2 Warren County voters WCPO TV-9: Lawsuit Filed Against ACORN In Warren County WCMH TV-4: ACORN Defends Efforts Amid Voter-Fraud Allegations…

Pingback| 10.3.09 @ 12:39PM

1851 In the News « Ohio Law Blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…News Release: 1851 Center Advises House Committee Modifying Mortgage Contracts Unconstitutional Miller v. ACORN Human Events: Ohio Secretary of State Linked to ACORN, Project Vote American Spectator: ACORN’s Tangled Money Tree Middletown Journal: ACORN sued on behalf of 2 Warren County voters WCPO TV-9: Lawsuit Filed Against ACORN In Warren County WCMH TV-4: ACORN Defends Efforts Amid Voter-Fraud…

Pingback| 10.13.09 @ 9:18PM

In the News links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…News Release: 1851 Center Advises House Committee Modifying Mortgage Contracts Unconstitutional Miller v. ACORN Human Events: Ohio Secretary of State Linked to ACORN, Project Vote American Spectator: ACORN’s Tangled Money Tree Middletown Journal: ACORN sued on behalf of 2 Warren County voters WCPO TV-9: Lawsuit Filed Against ACORN In Warren County WCMH TV-4: ACORN Defends Efforts Amid Voter-Fraud…

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