The American Spectator : ACORN Goes for Broke

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ACORN Goes for Broke

By Matthew Vadum on 11.16.09 @ 6:08AM

Obama's former employer is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.

As its financial resources dwindle, radical advocacy group and organized crime syndicate ACORN may have to file for bankruptcy protection before Christmas, ACORN insiders say.

"They may have to file for bankruptcy if they don't have several big pending grants approved or get emergency loans," a highly placed ACORN source told me over the weekend. This information bolsters Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) claim last week that ACORN is in turmoil amidst internal power struggles and on the verge of bankruptcy.

Given that ACORN is a network of hundreds of affiliated nonprofits, it's not exactly clear how a bankruptcy filing would work, but the idea is under serious consideration by ACORN's leadership. It was discussed at length at the group's most recent national board meeting, which took place in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., during the Oct. 14-15 weekend, ACORN sources told me.

But even if ACORN were to go bankrupt, that doesn't mean it would disappear.

ACORN may dissolve and then re-emerge as a new organization, the group's lawyer Arthur Z. Schwartz says. Such a re-organization may involve "the creation of new nonprofit entities in each state where ACORN functions, as ACORN considers moving from a centralized corporate structure, to a decentralized federated structure," Schwartz said. "ACORN will need help from people who have handled rebranding."

As of Nov. 11, ACORN and its affiliates owed at least $2,328,596 in long overdue back taxes to all levels of government. Many of the tax liens, which are only issued by creditor tax agencies after a tax debt has become seriously delinquent, do not appear in the Nexis database, so the actual total may be much higher. ACORN has been negotiating with tax collectors to have interest on its tax debts waived and to have some of the debts partially forgiven.

The new tax lien data throw new light on why ACORN can't sell its former headquarters at 1024 Elysian Fields Ave. in New Orleans. French Quarter Realty is asking $835,000 for the property, which is now weighed down by a whopping $1,278,862 in tax liens.

Of that nearly $1.3 million, $619,271 is owed to the IRS. It's unclear why the Obama administration's tax enforcers haven't seized the property yet. Perhaps the president is extending a courtesy to his former employer.

Most of the taxes ACORN and its affiliates failed to pay may be payroll taxes. Directors of ACORN and its affiliates may find themselves in for a rude shock because even in bankruptcy directors can find themselves personally liable for payroll deductions for taxes that were not remitted to the government.

Federal funding for ACORN has been cut off until at least Dec. 18 by Congress. Some big foundations and corporate donors are now shunning ACORN in light of the undercover prostitution sting videos that began surfacing in September.

Out of desperation the group filed a lawsuit last week against the federal government making the argument that in effect it has a constitutional right to receive public funds. The action was filed by the allegedly terrorist-funded Center for Constitutional Rights, whose Che Guevara-loving president, Michael Ratner, has a vested interest in the success of ACORN.

This is the same dubious argument Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), a longtime ally of ACORN who funds and has been endorsed by the group's partisan arm, the Working Families Party of New York, has made based on the Constitution's ban on bills of attainder.

Nadler heads a congressional subcommittee that may be investigating ACORN in the not-too-distant future and has been providing advice to ACORN's lawyer. Ilan Kayatsky, Nadler's communications director, refuses to return my calls to comment on the apparent conflict of interest.

topics:
ACORN, Jerrold Nadler

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 (18) | Leave a comment

S.L. Toddard| 11.16.09 @ 7:29AM

mon⋅o⋅ma⋅ni⋅a
–noun
1. (no longer in technical use) a psychosis characterized by thoughts confined to one idea or group of ideas.
2. an inordinate or obsessive zeal for or interest in a single thing, idea, subject, or the like.

David Williams| 11.16.09 @ 8:24AM

Now you are just becoming repetitive. Put a sock in it, please.

S.L. Toddard| 11.16.09 @ 8:56AM

Mr. Vadum - I agree with Mr. Williams's criticism. You are indeed becoming repetitive.

Matthew Vadum| 11.16.09 @ 9:53AM

mas⋅och⋅ism
-noun
/ˈmæsəˌkɪzəm, ˈmæz-/ [mas-uh-kiz-uhm, maz-]
1. gratification gained from pain, deprivation, degradation, etc., inflicted or imposed on oneself, either as a result of one's own actions or the actions of others, esp. the tendency to seek this form of gratification.
[synonym: S.L. Toddard]

Doorgunner| 11.16.09 @ 10:23AM

Main Entry: fifth column
Function: noun
Etymology: name applied to rebel sympathizers in Madrid in 1936 when four rebel columns were advancing on the city
Date: 1936

: a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders

— fifth col·um·nism \-ˈkä-ləm-ˌ(n)i-zəm\ noun

— fifth col·um·nist \-(n)ist\ noun

Tarded, here, has for so long been posing as the ultimate -the one true- conservative. He has fooled many. Let this be the clear proof:
No one who is interested in the reduction of government would work against the demise of a insidious leviathan such as ACORN.

Tarded's aim here, for those who haven't noticed, is to persuade conservatives to gravitate toward what he considers the most extreme (therefore, unattainable and unelectable) ideals and candidates.

He does not share our conservative values, and I have suspected for some time that he works for ACORN or some similar organization.

John II| 11.16.09 @ 11:57AM

Addendum, please.

Confucius repeat of necessity, "Contempt for monomania often sign of same; preoccupation thus become monomaniacal."

Thank you so much.

ACORN| 11.16.09 @ 12:25PM

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No, it ain't over until we say its over!

Bydand76| 11.16.09 @ 7:19PM

Toddard?

You post this everytime there is an article about the ACORN.

Arent you guilty of your own critizism then?

Also if it is a current story and there are new developments then would that not include new article about whats going on?

I really dont get you sometimes.

Meshuggah!

1FreeMan| 11.16.09 @ 9:32AM

ACORN will hopefully come to an end. I am fairly sure it would be a long drawn out fight with lots of drama and accusations of... wait for it... waaaait...RACISM!

This will almost certaintly be a multi-headed hydra-beast. Cut off ACORN and the loosers will set up shop as a new group. They must be monitored.

I keep saying it: Video everything and post it on the net. We are in a war for our freedom.

Retired Veteran| 11.16.09 @ 10:17AM

ACORN is probably causing the current socialist administration too much pain. Better for them to go away, lose the ACORN brand, and re-emerge as another entity which can carry the progressive banner.
Please, Mr. Vadum; continue the articles. They are well written and poignant.

Oldefarte| 11.16.09 @ 10:45AM

The sad, no truly DISCUSTING and PUTRID, thing about Acorn is that TAXPAYERS' income/funds have been THROWN DOWN A RATHOLE to pay for their partisan [Democratic Party] political subversion for too many prior years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bluecollarbytes.com| 11.16.09 @ 11:19AM

"ACORN will need help from people who have handled rebranding."

Nuts are nuts

Bob Miller| 11.16.09 @ 12:43PM

This organization.. needs to be de-branded..

They need to be closed, no more money... and no more support from the Demoncrats in Congress.

I expect Obama and especially HOLDER will figure out a legal way... to reorganize this organization... BUT then the states MUST not allow this type of organization to EVER exist again.

BUT we know that OBAMA will take care of his own... those losing jobs will find some type of GOVERNMENT job in his administration...

Political appointees for a job well done in getting him elected.. Even though we know that he is NOT a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN.

Matthew Vadum| 11.16.09 @ 1:14PM

I noticed some bad thinking that needs to be corrected.

On another blog, someone wrote in defense of ACORN's position, "What they are arguing is that they have the right to be treated the same as any other similarly-situated group when it comes to Federal money."

This concept is part of what is called "legislative due process."

Understandably, the courts have been quite hostile to this invented right. Whether it's ACORN, the Ku Klux Klan, the Communist Party, or an innocuous group like the Boy Scouts, no group has a "right" to a hearing when it comes to congressional appropriations. Appropriations are made subject to law and at the discretion of Congress.

And we can only imagine what would happen if groups started to regularly invoke their "legislative due process" rights. Good grief.

Richard Baker| 11.16.09 @ 8:38PM

Poor ACORN:
Are we supposed to feel sorry that a criminal enterprise is going bankrupt? Aren't they totally destroyed , yet? Soon, please.

d| 4.2.10 @ 3:56AM

repoy| 4.21.10 @ 11:57PM

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