Issa Report Reveals ACORN's Widespread Corruption

Congressman Darrell Issa, ranking member on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has been investigating the corrupt group ACORN and recently released a report that asks the question:

Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a
Criminal Enterprise?

The Executive Summary states that ACORN has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systemic fraud. Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American electorate.

ACORN:

1. has a total of 361 tax-exempt and non-exempt entities
2. diverts taxpayer and tax-exempt monies into partisan political activities.
3. Since 1994 upwards of $53 million in federal funds have been pumped into ACORN and
4. under Obama administration's stimulus package ACORN is suppose to receive $8.5 billion in stimulus funds.
5. This is our taxpayer money being given to the corrupt ACORN so they can filter the money for political purposes that would benefit the Democratic Party.
   

This report states that ACORN has:

First, ACORN has evaded taxes, obstructed justice, engaged in self dealing, and aided and abetted a cover-up of embezzlement by Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke.

Second, ACORN has committed investment fraud, deprived the public of its right to honest services, and engaged in a racketeering enterprise affecting interstate commerce.

Third, ACORN has committed a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using taxpayer funds for partisan political activities.

Fourth, ACORN has submitted false filings to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Labor, in addition to violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Fifth, ACORN falsified and concealed facts concerning an illegal transaction
between related parties in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

According to Issa's Report, ACORN refused to report Dale Rathke's embezzlement of $948,607.50 as an excess benefit transaction which appears to have violated the Internal Revenue Service. The cover-up that happened for eight years also constitutes obstruction of justice. ACORN incentives for workers to attain their voter registration have produced voter fraud.

ACORN forged both formal and informal connections with former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and President Barack Obama, among others. And, yes, there is evidence that President Obama's connections with ACORN reaches goes back a far piece and runs deep. ACORN and ACORN affiliates devised a scheme where each of these political figures campaigns received financial and personal resource contributions from ACORN and its affiliates which involved the use of taxpayer monies to support a partisan political agenda.
These actions are a clear violation of numerous tax and election laws.

ACORN has claimed success in “fighting key elements of the national Republican program", and in addition both ACORN and the SEIU took credit for the successful election of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and called it "flawless."

ACORN and its Chicago-Style Politics crossed state lines where in this report
overt political goals were spelled out:

ACORN will target three competitive Ohio congressional districts
as well as a half dozen state rep seats nested within the districts.
Our electoral work will mobilize and educate voters [and] our
paid professional canvass will execute tightly managed Voter ID
and GOTV canvasses moving our core constituency of base and
swing voters to the polls to vote for the candidates who most
closely align with a progressive Working Families Agenda.

Committee investigators have tracked ACORN’s numerous failures to comply with federal laws that required the payment of excise taxes on excess benefits to Dale Rathke. SEIU Local 100 – under the direction of ACORN founder Wade Rathke – filed bogus reports with the Labor Department in order to conceal embezzlement. ACORN violated the overtime and record-keeping provisions of FLSA. All of these fraudulent acts would constitute a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 by presenting false documents to the United States government.

Committee investigators have concluded that ACORN plundered employee benefits and
violated fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA by relieving corporate debts through prohibited loans to a related party. Moreover, ACORN affiliates lack independent control of their own assets and maintain shoddy accounting practices that serve to hide ACORN’s secret and illegal use of monies. ACORN conspired to conceal information concerning prohibited transactions from its board in violation of its corporate charter. ACORN’s termination of board members who sought to uncover its illegal activities perpetuates a cover-up at the expense of adherence to its own bylaws.

The evidence contained in this report proves that ACORN's stated purpose to promote grassroots civic participation has been perverted through fraudulent and illegal acts

Darrell Issa and the Committee's findings are in trying to figure out exactly which individuals own or control the organization which is necessary in order to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of federal funds by ACORN. When ACORN commits bad acts it uses its lower to mid-level employees as scapegoats. ACORN failed to observe its corporate articles by loaning money without proper legal documentation, by ignoring its duties under the corporate bylaws, by misusing corporate funds, and by terminating its members without honoring the process setup in its Articles of Incorporation. ACORN has not complied with IRS filing requirements or ERISA.

ACORN’s inadequate management structure nurtured a breakdown of corporate integrity, encouraged improper political walls, fostered violations of the tax code, cultivated the illegal use of federal funds and supported an inadequate response to corporate embezzlement. ACORN accepts federal grant funds yet lacks any whistleblower policy, fails to comply with IRS laws and lacks an ongoing relationship with duly qualified legal counsel. Project Vote lacks hiring standards and routinely employs convicted felons.

ACORN Primary purpose is in lobbying. It has endorsed Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Representative Albert Wynn (D-MD), and Representative Donna Edwards (D-MD). ACORN keeps donor records from the Clinton, Kerry and Obama campaigns with the intent to engage in prohibited communications. ACORN receives federal funding yet engages in improper lobbying.

ACORN hires convicted felons and other suspect persons.
70 employees were convicted in 12 states of voter registration fraud

A PA judge Richard Zoller even stated that "somebody has got to go after ACORN

Congressional Report Alleges ACORN guilty of corruption, Widespread Fraud