Nevada Judge Calls ACORN 'Reprehensible,' Slaps Group With Maximum Fine for Voter Fraud

A Nevada judge on Wednesday gave ACORN, the defunct grass-roots community organization, the maximum fine for its illegal voter-registration scheme in that state.

District Court Judge Donald Mosley was blunt and unsparing in his criticism of the discredited activist group. Citing the long history of voter registration fraud allegations that engulfed ACORN across the country, he slapped the group with a $5,000 fine for violating Nevada election law during the 2008 presidential election.

Mosley, reading the pre-sentence report, listed a series of voter registration fraud allegations against ACORN workers. He said that if the claims have been true, then "It is making a mockery of our election process. If I had an individual in this courtroom...who was responsible for this kind of thing, I would put that person in prison for 10 years, hard time, and not think twice about it," he said. "To me this is reprehensible. This is the kind of thing you see in some banana republic, Uruguay or someplace, not in the United States."

In Nevada, ACORN pleaded guilty to one felony count of unlawful compensation for registration of voters, stemming from an illegal voter registration scheme in its Las Vegas office during in the 2008 race.

The group paid a bonus to workers to sign up 21 or more voters per shift, calling the program "21," or "Blackjack."

The case was the first and so far only prosecution of ACORN itself. The previous ACORN cases that made headlines nationwide, included numerous convictions of ACORN employees for voter registration fraud.

Allegations ranged from trying to register dead people and making up fictitious voters, to plucking names out of the phone book.

REFERENCE----FINANCING THE DEMOCRAT VOTE-RIGGING MACHINE
The Tax-exempt Clinton Foundation donated $250,000 to ACORN.

Clinton pictured above with ACORN founder Wade Rathke.

The tax-exempt Clinton Foundation had just donated $250,000 to ACORN.

The tax-exempt Clinton Foundation supposedly provided $275,000 in grants 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.

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Senate Finance Committee Study ACORN comprises a mind-boggling 94 different affiliates, that amounts to "a big shell game," a biting Senate Finance Committee study shows. The study, by the staff of Iowa Republican Charles Grassley, reveals four ACORN charity groups give more than half their revenue to taxable entities that engage in "impermissible lobbying and political activity."

ACORN and it’s subsidiaries for decades have moved taxpayer money into their own pockets and into the left-wing Marxist machine.

Sen Charles Grassley's documents show leaders of ACORN community groups transferred several million dollars in charitable and government money-----meant for the poor---- to parts of the group that have political (and sometimes profit-making) missions.

Sen Grassley's documents indicate that ACORN's tax-exempt groups----along with its tangled web of allied organizations---- used more than half their charitable and public money in 2006 to pay other ACORN affiliates.

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REFERENCE The IRS has pinpointed tax-exempt "foundations and charities" as the locus classicus for tax evasion and money laundering. The BIGGEST tax-exempt fraud --- a tax-exempt foundation writing checks to a tax-exempt charity (the way crooks look "altruistic" as they siphon off tax-free money for personal/political uses).

JUSTICE DEPT COMPLAINT
Filed January 7, 2009
IN RE: ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFORM NOW (ACORN)

EXCERPT The undersigned State Board delegates and National Board members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (“ACORN”) file this criminal complaint against ACORN Staff and Executive Board members
for fraud, embezzlement, conspiracy and concealment, and criminal civil rights violations. Additionally, since there has already been the public admission that a felony was committed, it is also possible that other federal offenses have also been committed including but not limited to;

Title 18 U.S.C. §1341, Mail Fraud,
18 U.S.C.§1001, Presenting a False Document to the an Agent of the United States Government;
18 U.S.C.§1027 False statements and concealment of facts in relation to documents required by the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act of 1974 and other possible offenses including civiland/or criminal RICO violations.
18 U.S.C. §§1961-68 (RICO Act)18 U.S.C. §1001 (False Statements to Agents of the U.S. Government),
18 U.S.C. §1341 (Mail Fraud),18 U.S.C. §1027 (ERISA Violations), and,
18 U.S.C. §241(Conspiracy Against Civil Rights).

Complainants contend that full investigations of a RICO conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. §1962(c) are warranted because they assert that (1) the defendant persons (2) were employed by or associated with an enterprise (3) that engaged in or affected interstate commerce and that (4) the defendant persons operated or managed the enterprise (5) through a pattern (6) of racketeering activity, and, (7) the complaints were injured in its business or property by reason of the pattern of racketeering activity.

Thus, the complainants feel that a formal RICO investigation is also warranted. 1. The Alleged Offense:The Complainants hereby allege a violation of Title 18 U.S.C. §241 – Conspiracy Against Constitutional Rights – which prohibits in relevant part, “two or more persons (from conspiring) to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same . . .” See, 18 U.S.C. §241.

BACKGROUND ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a community-based advocacy organization founded in 1970. ACORN became part of the story of the 2008 presidential election as news reports and allegations surfaced against ACORN in a number of states. These complaints refer primarily to alleged irregularities with voter registration drives conducted by the organization. (National Review Online: Inside Obama’s ACORN, May 29, 2008.) But also included significant embezzlement and concealment by Senior Staff and Executive Committee members.

ACORN registered as a non-profit corporation with the Secretary of State in Louisiana in 1977. Its Charter Organization ID is 04700320X. According to its corporate filings, ACORN’s principle place of business is New Orleans, Louisiana, and approximately 294 related entities and related non-profits are also located at this place of business. ACORN is not registered as a tax-exempt organization.

ACORN’s top three officers are President Maude Hurd of Dorchester, MA, Vice President Maria Polanco of Brooklyn, NY, and Secretary Maxine A. Nelson of Pine Bluff, AR, and Bertha Lewis. Maxine A. Nelson is also the director of Project Vote.

Citizen’s Consulting, Inc. (CCI) provides bookkeeping, human resource and financial management services exclusively for ACORN and related entities. All of CCI’s “clients” reside at ACORN office locations, utilize common management and staff. CCI is the financial “nerve center” for ACORN and it affiliated organizations which houses the corporate books and records for all ACORN entities.

ACORN was founded by Wade Rathke, an activist on issues of labor unions and lowincome workers, and Gary Delgado, an activist on issues of race and social justice. It has national headquarters in New York, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan social justice organization.

In 2003, ACORN opened operations in 20 new cities, including 5 state capitals. The group claims about 350,000 members across the country. (Wall Street Journal: Obama and ACORN, October 14, 2008.). Since 1970, ACORN has grown to more than 400,000 member families, organized in 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities across the U.S. and in cities in Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Argentina and India.

ACORN Government grants According to Oct 8, 2008 New York Post, 40% of ACORN’s operations are funded through grants it receives from various governmental entities. (NYP: The Pro-Barack Vote-Fraud Drive, Michelle Malkin, Oct. 8, 2008.)

Grants to ACORN by the Dept of Housing and Urban Development: $8.2 million between 2003 and 2006, as well as $1.6 million to ACORN affiliates. The EPA gave a $100,000 grant to ACORN in 2004 for a Louisiana Justice Project, which removed lead from the homes of low income families. The Justice Dept also gave a grant to ACORN in 2005 for a juvenile delinquency program. (NPR:ACORN’s Money Tree Has Many Branches, October 15, 2008).

Complainants vs. Bertha Lewis, Wade Rathke, Dale Rathke, Steven Kest, Jon Kest,Mike Shea, Zach Pollett, Helene O’Brien, Amy Schur,Liz Wolf, Beth Butler, Mildred Brown, Maud Hurd, Alton Bennett, Beth Kingsley and other unknown individuals. —SNIP—

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