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
