(1) TOP ACORN--BARACK OBAMA "Today. we're going to learn how to use HUD federal funds to open a brothel utilizing underage children imported from the Third World. And when I become president, this will all be legal. I'll make all of you rich beyond your dreams."
PATRICK GASPARD
(2) ACORN's man in the Obama White House is longtime ACORN operative Patrick Gaspard. He holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House. He's the Presidents fixer and the man who gets ACORN projects and money. Gaspard once worked for ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis.
(3) Patrick Gaspards brother Michael Gaspard works for The Advance Group. Michael Gaspard works for ACORNs registered lobbying organization and with ACORNs national spokesman Bertha Lewis. Michael apparently keeps a lower profile than his brother. He does not appear on lobbyist disclosures for The Advance Group NY State. Nonetheless, he works there. Ms. Lewiss contacts list confirms Michael Gaspards employment there.
(4) ACORN Shaun Donovan. Mr. Donovan is HUD Secy. Before that, Mr. Donovan was NYC Commissioner of Dept of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)---where Donovan worked on affordable housing initiatives----projects right up ACORNs alley.
(5) ACORN Karine Jean-Pierre is WH liaison for Dept of Labor (headed by latino agitator Hilda Solis). Karine once worked for John Edwards (vertical or horizontal?). She left there to work for Cong Anthony Weiner, then became Barack Obamas regional political director.
ACORNS EVERYWHERE 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 its 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.
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 ACORNSS "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)