Free Republic

Authorities say he was found at the bottom of his Palm Beach home's pool Sunday afternoon by his wife and could not be revived...

Denise Tejada bought a house last month at the age of 20, thanks in large part to a loan guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority. This story offers a dramatic demonstration that, despite the housing bubble causing the worst economic downturn in generations, the ideology of home ownership is alive and well in the United States and still being supported by the government. Without question, Tejada's loan is toxic--to her and to the taxpayers who are backing the loan. Her house cost $155,000. Tejada's loan was apparently made on a micro-down payment of just 3.5%, the minimum down payment to...

Evidence continues to accumulate from far and wide that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is lousy with corruption. The latest revelations come from Louisiana and Oklahoma. In the former, the local ACORN Housing Corp. office received contracts worth a combined $625,000 from the City of New Orleans for repairing existing low-income housing and developing new units in poor neighborhoods. The contracts were paid for with funds from federal Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. An investigation by the Pelican Institute think tank of New Orleans, however, found that no work...

This broke earlier this morning. Bank of America Corp. is suspending its work with the housing affiliate of embattled community organizing group ACORN. The decision comes as three Republicans in Congress ask Bank of America and 13 other financial institutions to give Congress a complete accounting of their dealings with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or its affiliates.

Taxpayer-Owned Citigroup Still Bankrolling ACORN Submitted by Peter Flaherty on Sun, 09/27/2009 - 18:59   Now that taxpayers are Citigroup’s biggest shareholder, owning 36% of common stock, it is time for the company and its foundation to end its relationship with ACORN and its affiliates.Citigroup has received $45 billion in taxpayer TARP funds. In addition, taxpayers are on the hook for the lion’s share of losses on the company’s $335 billion loan portfolio.According to the 2008 annual tax return of the Citi Foundation, it provided the ACORN Institute, Inc. with grants of $500,000 for each of the years 2006, 2007...

Like rats deserting a sinking ship, ACORN's many enablers over the years are racing for the exits as the scope of the organization's shenanigans come to light. Even leftist fellow-traveler -- and, until now, stalwart ACORN defender -- Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is squirming. What took them so long? We've been warning about the group for ages.

More bad news for the Democratic Parties Favorite community organizing group, ACORN. While Harry Reid continues to get heat at home for refusing to allow Senate hearings on ACORN, Senator Grassley had his staff do a little investigation of their own. According to the Capital Research Center, Grassley (R-Iowa), asked the IRS to probe ACORN – and asked that the group be dropped from the Combined Federal Campaign (a charitable program for government workers). This is not the first time the Senator has gone after the ACORN criminal enterprise, in 2006 he asked the IRS to investigate ACORN for voter...

WASHINGTON – The embattled community activist group ACORN appears to be collecting charitable contributions through affiliate organizations that it then uses for impermissible lobbying and political activity, says the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee. The assessment, in a memo to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, further fuels the controversy surrounding ACORN, formally known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The GOP staff memo says ACORN-affiliated charities are being used to raise money which is then funneled to other charities or other organizations for purposes other than what a donor may have intended. In response, ACORN chief...

The IRS yesterday severed its ties with ACORN, the profoundly corrupt community organizing group embroiled in a seemingly never-ending string of controversies, criminal investigations and voter registration fraud charges.  Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau also severed ties with the group. The latest controversy is over the series of videos covertly taped by new media journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.  In these videos, O’Keefe and Giles, posing as a pimp and prostitute, are given tax advice by ACORN representatives in different cities across the country.   The tax advice included listing “performance artist� as the prostitute’s employment code in...

ACORN being called a criminal enterprise. Despite years of warning signs that ACORN was violating the law, many state attorneys general have not investigated the organization or brought enforcement actions. State attorneys general, besides being the chief enforcement officers for violations of state laws, claim unique law enforcement authority over nonprofits. The reasons for inaction by state attorneys general may explain why ACORN is such a problem. ACORN has developed close ties, to put it mildly, with many state attorneys general as well as others deep in the Democrat establishment. The relationship between ACORN and Democrats may be described as...

See video @ WDSU: IRS Leins on ACORN

Bank of America is even still referring people to the ACORN offices caught on tape. A sample from the banks' website: Local Home Ownership Programs We work with local and national organizations to bring potential homebuyers education and financial resources to obtain a mortgage. Phoenix * ACORN. Bank of America works with Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Housing to provide special mortgage products to potential homeowners in Phoenix. For more information, call ACORN's Phoenix office at 1.602.253.1111 or visit the website at www.acornhousing.org. * NCLR. Bank of America works with National Council of La Raza (NCLR) to...

It now looks very much like there was a lot more truth to the criticisms about ACORN—the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now—than its leadership, its allies on Capitol Hill and its supporters in the media were willing to acknowledge.... This latest round of problems for ACORN may be the best documented, but they are not the first nor, for that matter, are they the most serious. A report issued last summer by the Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to Sunday's Washington Times, "presented evidence that ACORN had engaged in criminal misconduct." Among the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The IRS says it is severing ties with ACORN, the community activist group involved in a scandal after employees were caught on video giving advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp. The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it would no longer include ACORN in its volunteer tax assistance program. The program offered free tax advice to about 3 million low- and moderate-income tax filers this spring

As scandals concerning the left-wing "community" group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) continue to metastasize, the organization seems to think it can handpick allies to "investigate" its own transgressions. Fortunately for the rest of us, the growth of independent writers and researchers using modern communications means there are plenty of other outfits that can and will expose corruption. Case in point: The Pelican Institute think tank in New Orleans keeps unearthing examples of federal and state tax liens against ACORN's national headquarters in the Crescent City. The institute's indefatigable research broke into national attention yesterday via a...

Clarice Feldman The federal government should review all tax returns prepared by ACORN tax preparers (and all loan applications prepared by ACORN -- but that is a separate review process). That the IRS knows who these people are is suggested by this article, which I suppose was repeated throughout the country: ... ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) Tax and Benefits Centers in Hartford and Bridgeport are ready to assist CT Taxpayers. ACORN has partnered with the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Preparation (VITA) program to provide free tax preparation for low and moderate income taxpayers who cannot afford...

Remember when Nancy Pelosi made that famous promise? "This will be the most ethical congress ever." Despite all the evidence that Rangel should be taking a "perp walk" rather than the position of Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Pelosi says she is waiting for the House Ethics Committee to complete its wide-ranging investigation before she makes a decision about Rangel..Why is Pelosi supporting Charlie Rangel and ignoring the volume of evidence against him? Its not because of any long standing friendship of loyalty, its because she needs to protect her own political butt:

Remember that promise made by Nancy Pelosi? "This will be the most ethical congress ever." There are many examples of how that was an empty promise, the latest of which is her support of Charlie Rangel. Despite all the evidence that Rangel should be taking a "perp walk" rather than the position of Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Pelosi says she is waiting for the House Ethics Committee to complete its wide-ranging investigation before she makes a decision about Rangel. Others are Not waiting. Today the left wing newspaper, The Washington Post repeated its call for...

LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, PATRICIA J. HAYNES, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division ("IRSCID"), JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), RONALD J. VERROCHIO, the Inspector-in- Charge of the New York Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service ("USPIS"), and JAMIE WOODWARD, the Acting Commissioner of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance ("NYSDTF"), announced the unsealing of a four-count Indictment charging...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Harriette Monica Walters, 52, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced this morning in federal court to 17 years, six months of incarceration for her eighteen-year-long, $48 million fraud scheme at the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Channing D. Phillips, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Charles Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, Special Agent in Charge C. Andre' Martin of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, J. Russell George,...

Maybe when City College of NY is done building Charlie Rangel's favorite Pork project, the $1.95 million, federal earmark funded Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service one of the first courses they could teach is "Playing Fast and Loose with Ethics 101." This past year, has not been kind to Congressmen Charlie Rangel. In September he admitted a failure to report $75 thousand in taxes. Rangel is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, they write the tax law. You would think that he would be extra-careful to make sure that he would follow the tax law....

Reporting from Mecca, Calif. -- An hour before dawn in the camp of last resort. Dozens of men and a few women are asleep in the beds of pickup trucks, in the back seats of cars or on flattened cardboard boxes in the dirt behind the Toro Loco market. The air is cool, but the terrible sun is close at hand. Martin Zavala is wrapped in a blanket, his head resting on a Scooby-Doo pillow, a pack of Marlboros under his neck. Thieves prowl at night and will snatch what is not secured. Drunks and meth-addled tweakers tease the dozing...

"Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. To justify suppression of free speech, there must be reasonable ground to fear that serious evil will result if free speech is practiced." -- Justice Louis Brandeis Free speech should be practiced only by those who are ready to deal with the consequences, which just might include a knock on the door by a friendly federal investigator wanting to know if you posted an anonymous comment...

Michael Wayne Sulfridge, a resident of Union Grove, Alabama and former vice president of corporate finance at Image Entry, Inc. (Image Entry), pleaded guilty today to fraud and tax evasion charges stemming from the company’s 2001 acquisition by Sourcecorp, Inc. (Sourcecorp), Assistant Attorney of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Tax Division John A. DiCicco and U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas announced. Sulfridge, 44, pleaded guilty to a two-count criminal information charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, as well as tax evasion. According...

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that defendant Thomas Y. Jimenez, 50, of Plantation, FL, was sentenced today to 36 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $587,876.52 in restitution. The sentence followed his January 2009 plea to a one count Information charging him with obstructing and impeding the due administration of the tax laws, in violation of Title...

Roger Corbin, a Nassau County Legislator representing the Second Legislative District, was arrested today pursuant to a federal complaint charging him with filing false federal tax returns and making false statements to Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. The defendant’s initial appearance is scheduled later today before United States Magistrate Arlene R. Lindsay at the U.S. Courthouse, 100 Federal Plaza, Central Islip, New York. The charges were announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph M. Demarest, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),...

Abuse is rampant in the collection of fraudulent income tax refunds from the IRS, especially by illegal immigrants -- according to a new report to be released by the Social Contract Press on April 14. The 51-page report, The Earned Income Tax Credit and Illegal Immigration: A Study in Fraud, Abuse, and Liberal Activism, by financial analyst and economist Edwin Rubenstein, will be released at a News Conference at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at the National Press Club (529 14th St., NW, 13th floor) in Washington, D.C. "The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the largest anti-poverty...

<p>The economic earthquake rocking the country is allowing plenty of dirty little secrets to seep out in a way that a robust economy would not have.</p> <p>There's Bernie Madoff (as in ``Bernie made off'' with my money); billion-dollar bonuses for bailed-out bankers racking up billions in losses (Merrill(ly) Lynch); Northern Trust(me) of Chicago using some of its $1.5 billion in bailout money for PGA golf tournaments and Sheryl Crow; well, you get the idea, and that's just the low-hanging fruit.</p>

When someone proposes an initiative ballot measure, the attorney general gives it an official title and summary. There's always been much political angst, as well as legal wrangling, over the wording of controversial issues. . . . When the Legislature places a measure on the ballot, however, it often bypasses the attorney general by specifying the ballot title and even indirectly designating those who write ballot pamphlet arguments. In other words, the Legislature, in league with the governor, tries to fix the election by fixing how measures are portrayed. Cases in point are the six measures that the Legislature and...

Akaka (D-HI), YeaAlexander (R-TN), NayBarrasso (R-WY), NayBaucus (D-MT), Yea Bayh (D-IN), YeaBegich (D-AK), YeaBennet (D-CO), YeaBennett (R-UT), NayBingaman (D-NM), Yea Bond (R-MO), Not VotingBoxer (D-CA), YeaBrown (D-OH), Not VotingBrownback (R-KS), NayBunning (R-KY), Nay Burr (R-NC), NayBurris (D-IL), YeaByrd (D-WV), NayCantwell (D-WA), YeaCardin (D-MD), Yea Carper (D-DE), YeaCasey (D-PA), YeaChambliss (R-GA), NayCoburn (R-OK), NayCochran (R-MS), Nay Collins (R-ME), NayConrad (D-ND), YeaCorker (R-TN), YeaCornyn (R-TX), YeaCrapo (R-ID), Yea DeMint (R-SC), NayDodd (D-CT), YeaDorgan (D-ND), YeaDurbin (D-IL), Yea Ensign (R-NV), Yea Enzi (R-WY), NayFeingold (D-WI), NayFeinstein (D-CA), YeaGraham (R-SC), YeaGrassley (R-IA), Nay Gregg (R-NH), YeaHagan (D-NC), YeaHarkin (D-IA), NayHatch (R-UT), YeaHutchison (R-TX),...

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An intrepid researcher has discovered more than 200 tax liens totaling more than $3.7 million have been filed by the government against the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now for unpaid taxes since the late eighties. A tax lien is issued when a person or organization fails to pay taxes and that tax debt is considered seriously delinquent. A lien is only issued after the government makes several unsuccessful attempts to collect the debt. The conservative-leaning Capital Research Center’s Matthew Vadum found a staggering number of liens listed against ACORN’s national headquarters at 1024 Elysian Fields Avenue in New...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The Associated Press has learned that Charles Rangel will not step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee.

Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, said Wednesday he will not step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in the face of a call from the Republican leader in the House for him to do so. Rep. Charles Rangel says he will pay back taxes on rental property he owns in the Dominican Republic. Rangel has been under fire for failing to report income from a rental property he owns in the Dominican Republic. He admitted Tuesday he had not paid tax on the income, but said it was a mistake and he will...

Former IRS Employee Sued for Tax Scam Chicago (Sept. 5, 2008) By WebCPA staff | The Justice Department has accused a former Internal Revenue Service secretary of cheating her tax prep clients and the government out of approximately $850,000. The government filed suit in a federal district court in Chicago seeking a permanent injunction against Debra Windham to prevent her from preparing tax returns from others. Windham, who prepares returns under the business name Special Circumstances, allegedly claimed false deductions for her clients and then applied without their knowledge for refund anticipation loans in their names.

Dear Senator Obama: Our common denomination, the United Church of Christ, has a suddenly serious legal and financial problem with the Internal Revenue Service. You, personally, are the cause of this problem. Candidly? I think you owe it to those of us who are your fellow congregants to help repair the damage that you have done. ...UNSURPRISINGLY, ALL OF THIS resulted in a complaint being filed with the IRS following your presentation. In addition to your speech and the stories featured by the UCC's own website, the complaint cites numerous media accounts describing your appearance as a campaign event. This...

An informant who provided German authorities with data from a Liechtenstein bank that sparked a massive tax fraud probe has said his life is threatened, two news magazines are to report Monday. "You are putting my life in danger," Heinrich Kieber wrote to German intelligence services, according to German weekly Focus in an article released in advance of publication over the weekend. The informant has blamed the intelligence services for not keeping his identity secret and asked them to provide him with a new identity so that he can relocate to South America. His request has been refused, Focus reported....

MIAMI — Hot-shot action hero Wesley Snipes faces losing his movie fortune and possibly a lengthy prison stay for his failure to pay income taxes for the years 1999-2004, according to legal experts. The star of such films as the “Blade” trilogy and director Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever” is charged in an Ocala, Fla., court with conspiring to defraud the U.S. government, filing a false claim for $11 million in refunds for the years 1996 and 1997 and for not filing tax returns for six years beginning in 1999. The first two charges are considered felony offenses for which the...

Scandalous $10 Million Bat Mitzvah David Brooks of DHB Industries Arrested for Embezzling Company Funds Oct. 27, 2007 — The headliners read like a who's who of music: Aerosmith, 50 Cent and Don Henley of the Eagles. No, it wasn't the Grammys, it was 13-year-old Elizabeth Brooks' birthday party -- a $10 million mega bat mitzvah. Aerosmith alone was paid a $1 million to perform -- flown in on her father's company jet. Her father is David Brooks, who was then the CEO of DHB Industries, the leading body armor provider to U.S. soliders in Iraq. And he had his...

At least three individuals pardoned by President Clinton during his last minutes in office have run into further trouble with the government. But despite the recent brouhaha over President Bush’s commutation of the prison sentence of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and the controversy surrounding Clinton’s “midnight pardons,” Congress has shown little appetite for making substantial changes to the executive branch’s clemency power. While some lawmakers over the last decade have called for changes to the pardon system, the few bills proposed have not come close to becoming law. Financier Marc Rich, businessman Almon Glenn Braswell and Roger Clinton Jr., the...

WASHINGTON - Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro and 13 other Catholic members of Congress released a letter Tuesday calling on Catholic bishops to help end the war in Iraq. "As Catholic members of Congress, we stand in unison with the Catholic Church in opposition to the war in Iraq," the Democratic 3rd District congresswoman said in a statement. "Yet to attain the ideal of peace, we must not only speak the words, we must take action." As a result, she and her colleagues sent a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, or USCCB, urging it to "mobilize Catholic opinion...

The favorable portrait of honest and hard-working illegal immigrants who simply want to feed their families was shattered when federal agents arrested dozens of undocumented workers using dead and elderly Americans’ Social Security numbers along with previously deported criminals at an Oregon food processing plant. More than 165 undocumented workers were arrested in the raid at a major Portland fruit and vegetable processing plant for food giant Del Monte. At least 90 employees had fraudulent Social Security cards and many used the real Social Securities of juveniles, the elderly and the deceased. Others had fake green, or residency, cards and...

Imagine all the money we've wasted putting bank robbers behind bars. After all, they just "wanted a better life." How else are they going to feed their families if we don't let them rob banks — one of those "jobs [other] Americans won't do." The Senate immigration bill is a threat to the rule of law. But then Washington's scofflaw approach to immigration for over 40 years has made a total mockery of "the law." Oooooh! Stop scaring people President Bush has accused conservatives of "scaring" people merely by pointing to the many flaws in his immigration proposal. Not satisfied...

War protesters tired of group's blunders, gripes Sunday, April 08, 2007 Angella K. Brown Associated Press Crawford, Texas -- With allegations of money mismanagement, threats of court action and some members leaving, a group that has sponsored war protests in President Bush's adopted hometown has been anything but peaceful. The Crawford Peace House recently lost its corporate charter with the state, and a former member who has rights to the name is threatening legal action because the group continues operating. Sara L. Oliver and some others are calling for a state investigation as to why only $14,700 is now in...

Anyone who thinks our enemies aren't aware of what goes on at home has his head completely in the sand. This is further evidenced by Al-Jazeera's front page story today. جيسي جاكسون: صدام كان مجرما لكنه كان حلي�نا أيضا The literal translation is:Jesse Jackson: Saddam Hussein was an evil man, but he was also our allyThink about that for a minute. Arab news doesn't even feel the need to explain who the hell Jesse Jackson is. They're that aware of our internal politics. Furthermore, this makes their front page story!! It would be nice if one day, we as a...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2006 WWW.USDOJ.GOV TAX (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888 FEDERAL COURT ORDERS HALT TO INTERNET-BASED TAX-FRAUD SCHEME Maryland Man Operated Frivolous Letter-Generating “Complex” WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal court in Baltimore has permanently barred John Baptist Kotmair, Jr., of Westminster, Md., and his organization, “Save-a-Patriot Fellowship,” from selling a tax-fraud scheme, the Justice Department announced today. The court described Kotmair as a “seasoned tax protestor,” stated it was without question that he is “violating the tax laws,” and described his representations about the tax laws as “clearly fraudulent.” The court’s opinion states that Kotmair and...

Wesley Snipes was indicted Tuesday in Tampa, Fla., on conspiracy to defraud the IRS and failing to file income tax returns. The Blade actor and two other men, Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosile, are charged with eight counts of conspiracy to defraud the IRS for falsely claiming nearly $12 million in refunds. Snipes, 44, is also charged with six counts of failing to file tax returns for the years 1999 through 2004. ... A warrant has been issued for his arrest... According to the indictment, Kahn was the founder of American Rights Litigators and its successor, Guiding Light...

WASHINGTON -- Wesley Snipes, whose flash and dash style of acting carried him from the streets of the South Bronx to movie stardom, has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and tax fraud, federal officials announced today. Snipes, 44, was also charged with six counts of failing to file income tax returns. If convicted of all of the charges, he could be sentenced to as much as 16 years in prison. Snipes' whereabouts could not be determined, said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office for the Middle District of Florida.

Two former executives at a government-funded youth organization whose finances were scrutinized after it diverted money to the liberal radio network Air America were charged Thursday with misappropriating $1.2 million of the non-profit's funds. Charles Rosen, a former executive director at the Gloria Wise Community Center, and his former assistant director, Jeffrey Aulenbach, face charges of grand larceny and obstructing governmental administration. Rosen was also charged with forgery. New York City's Department of Investigation, which investigated the nonprofit for two years, said the men improperly took more than $290,000 from the organization for their personal use, on top of their...

US Muslims Gear up for Nov. Elections DALLAS — American Muslims have set up voter registration booths in mosques across the United States to encourage fellow Muslim voters to sign up for the November mid-term elections. "We have set up booths in 150 mosques across the country in the past two weeks," Mukit Hossain, a political consultant to the Muslim American Society which is championing the drive, told Reuters Saturday, September 30. American Muslims have also established a website to enable Muslim voters to register online. Hossain said about 10,000 were estimated to have been registered to date, expecting "tens...