Clinton pictured above with ACORN founder Wade Rathke.
The tax-exempt Clinton Foundation had just donated $250,000 to ACORN.
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BACKSTORY The tax-exempt Clinton Foundation also provided $275,000 in tax-exempt grants supposedly for ACORNS’S "Katrina Benefits Access project" and ACORN'S "Operation Hope Project; Restore Hope." The tax-exempt Clinton Foundation also helped secure "private sector" commitments for ACORN.
JUST WONDERING Can ACORN produce records on how they spent the money? Oh, nevermind. The IRS, SEC, FBI, Congress and the GAO can find out (/snic).
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The IRS has pinpointed tax-exempts and non-profits as the locus classicus for money laundering and tax evasion (stolen money is taxable). The biggest frauds are tax-exempts writing checks to other tax-exempts---the way these "altruistic do-gooders" siphon off, then launder, tax-free monies for themselves.
The Rathkes embezzled millions from ACORN --- but their activities offshore gives rise to concerns about massive govt fraud and money laundering.
Since 1970, ACORN has organized in 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities across the US and in cities in Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Argentina and India.
ACORN also appears to have been involved in improper use of pension funds ..... some of the Rathke embezzlment was apparently taken from the pension fund using ACORN's American Express card. This displacement of funding led to the creation of a complex repayment system in which accused embezzler Dale Rathke owed ACORN, and ACORN in turn, owed ABA, which, for its part, wrote off part of the money. (Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
ACORN receives funding from a variety of tax-exempt private charitable organizations: the Bauman Family Foundation, George Soros' Open Society Institute, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and from corporate foundations, including JP Morgan Chase Foundation, Ben & Jerry's foundation, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, and Citigroup, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and tax-exempt foundations affiliated with the founder of (UPS). (NPR: ACORN's Money Tree Has Many Branches, October 15, 2008).
A full list of ACORN and ACORN affiliate donors is available from the Capital Research Center, a non-profit organization which studies political advocacy groups. (Foundation Watch, 2008: Capital Research Center Cracks the ACORN)