Criminal Enterprise Acorn Still Taking Money Despite Liquidation

Fox News is reporting that the criminal enterprise ACORN that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August 2010 continues to take poor people's money automatically withdrawing money from their bank accounts.

Fox reports on the story of Kerry Sheldon who sign up for membership when Acorn promised to help her with her mortgage in default. It sounded good at $10 per month.

But Acorn did not help and did not communicate with her. Ms. Sheldon worked out her own problems with the bank and asked Acorn to cancel her membership. Despite promising that the membership was cancelled, Acorn kept taking her money directly from her account. Ms. Sheldon was afraid to close her account, because with her credit problems she feared she would not be able to open another.

Fox News spoke with Acorn's bankruptcy lawyer:

Joseph W. Shulter, a bankruptcy attorney in San Antonio, tells FoxNews.com that under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, it is illegal for ACORN to continue collecting funds from members.

“Under liquidation they must cancel auto withdrawals,” he says. “Had they filed to re-organize, they would be able to.” But ACORN was calling it quits altogether.

Read more: http://foxnews.com/us/2011/03/16/woman-claims-acorn-continues-deduct-money-defunct-membership/#ixzz1Grc3zbNJ

According to the report, Ms. Sheldon is not alone. Former Acorn representatives refused to comment.

That is how the left cares for the poor.

ACORN Funding Ban Reinstated

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated the ACORN funding ban voted by Congress, Human Events is reporting. A copy of the Second Circuit's order is here.

This an appeal from the District Court ruling that had found the funding ban unconstitutional as a bill of attainder. Somehow, the District Court thought that ACORN has a constitutional right to continue to receive your money even if it behaves badly.

On September 18, 2009, I called Jerrold Nadler a nut for suggesting that ACORN had a constitutional right to your money, but the District Court judge agreed with him, called the legislation a bill of attainder.

A bill of attainder is legislated punishment imposed by Congress after the wrongful act has occurred. It has typically been thought of as a criminal law enacted after commission of the act now legislated to be criminal. For example, Congress could not punish Nancy Pelosi for her back-room deals on the health care bill by making those deals illegal after-the-fact.

Acorn's President Lauds Socialism

A curious rant. It seems to me that it is more the tea party types that should be worried about some new McCarthyism.

Bertha Lewis as socialist is not exactly a surprise.

Acorn is struggling. When your primary funding comes from a single source, in this case the government, you will struggle if the single source dries up. No loss to society, I think.

ACORN to leave Ohio, Good Riddance

As part of a voter fraud lawsuit, ACORN has agreed to give up its qualification to do business in Ohio effective June 1, 2010.

Read about it here.

ACORN will not be missed.
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ACORN in the News Again, But Not in a Good Way

More indictments against the Acornistas, this time felony indictments related to double voting and double registrations.

The kicker is that ACORN's management essentially assured cheating by offering incentives for dishonesty. If ACORN workers did not meet voter registration quotas, they got their pay docked.

So what did ACORN expect from its culture of corruption? Its employees cheated of course, with false registrations and multiple registrations of the same persons.

Read it all here.

This emphasizes a point I have often made. Liberals (I'm sorry, are we calling them progressives, now?) do not understand the consequences of incentives. If Medicare (or Obamacare) has piles of money for the taking, folks will work overtime to figure out easy (i.e., cheating) ways to get their hands on it. The incentive is to cheat for the easy money. Felonies are only for those who get caught.

Another simple example. Enact a minimum wage to give workers a living wage. People who aren't worth that much money get fired. Not only no living wage, but no wage at all. Smart.

Big government folks seem incapable of thinking through the steps to determine what incentives they actually create. I guess that problem flows through their management skill as well.

No surprise.

James O'Keefe Arrested

It does not look good for James O'Keefe of the famous ACORN sting. He was caught inside a federal office with two others doing something (we don't know what) with the telephones. The supposedly entered the office "under false pretenses." A copy of the police arrest affidavit is here.

The whole thing is a bit puzzling.

According to the affidavit,

On January 25,2010, individuals entered and attempted to gain entrance to the office and telephone system of United States Senator Mary Landrieu, located in the Hale Boggs Federal Building, Room 1005, 500 Poydras Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130 for the purpose of interfering with the office's telephone system. The individuals did so by falsely and fraudulently representing that the were employees of a telephone company.

It does not appear to be a case of breaking and entering. Much like the ACORN sting, they presented themselves as something they were not, that is, telephone company employees.

What did they actually do? They apparently claimed that calls were not getting through to the telephones and requested access to the telephone closet. The affidavit, then states,

Based on the above information, your Affiant believes there is probable cause to believe that FLANAGAN and BASEL by false and fraudulent pretense attempted to enter, and did in fact enter, real property belonging to the United States for the purpose of willfully and maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated and controlled by the United States of America.

"Interfering with a telephone system?" Exactly what does that mean?

Presumably, we will find out. If they were tapping telephones or trying to render them inoperable or sabotaging the system's ability to operate, that sort of activity cannot be justified as a journalistic sting like the ACORN operation.

It will be interesting to learn what this was all about.

ACORN Lied Again ... Anyone Surprised?

Who'd-a thunk it. Acorn lied again.

According to Acorn and press reports fed by Acorn, the pimp and prostitute kids who have so embarrassed Acorn were kicked out of the Philadelphia office for making a disturbance.

Watch the truth for yourself.

ACORN Warned By Its Lawyers

This is an astounding public revelation of warnings given to ACORN over a year ago, just before the firing of the embezzler (brother of founder Wade Rathke) who had remained on the board for nearly ten years after discovery -- and cover up -- of the almost $1 million he embezzled.


Vadum_TheKingsleyMemo_CapitalResearchCenter -

The American Spectator has a complete discussion.

ACORN Bound Over for Trial

ACORN the organization has been bound over for criminal trial in Nevada according to an Associated Press report. The charge relates to using quotas and financial incentives to register people to vote.

It is hard to tell whether the activity was intentionally wrong or whether ACORN is simply incompetently managed. In either case, it should be no candidate for government money, even if it were not a partisan organization (which in my mind should disqualify it even if it were otherwise competently and lawfully managed).

ACORN: Crime and Cover-up in Nevada

This on e has been boiling for a while. Remember how the ACORN spokespeople, e.g. Scott Levenson, claimed that the instances of voter registration fraud (about 50 charges, 30 guilty pleas to date) were all rogue employees and ACORN the organization had no role in the fraud? Remember that?

well, here be go in Nevada where ACORN not only have a role in illegal voter registrations, but acted to cover up its crimes. Fox News report here.

Organizations truly do have cultures. In the 1960s, you could tell an IBM guy by the dark suit and black tie. You can tell a military guy by the bearing and pride in our nation. How can you tell an ACORN person? By the acceptance of criminality, I guess. By the defensiveness over the indefensible.

The organization is corrupt. It is too bad. Poor people need charitable assistance with some of the matters that ACORN addressed. I hope some good faith-based charities will step in to fill the void.

On a related front, the New York Times continues to be slow on the story. No report yet of the criminal charges against ACORN itself.

ACORN v O'Keefe et al

There is an excellent legal analysis of the liekliehood of success of the ACORN suit on the legal issues at Copyrights and Campaigns blog.

One of the commenters points out the case of Lachman v. Sperry-Sun Surveying Company, 450 F. 2d 850, in which a surveyor was checking an oil and gas well under a contract with the the leaseholder that prohibited the surveyor from disclosing the results of any work. The Surveyor discovered that the well was not vertical and the bottom of the well encroached the neighbor's property. The surveyor told the neighbor about the encroachment. The leaseholder sued the surveyor for breaching the nondisclosure obligation of the surveyor's contract. The court found that the public policy of the state would not permit a contract to be enforced that permitted a crime to go undetected.

I think the Baltimore Circuit Court should find a public policy exception implicit in the statute the forbids surreptitious recording, if the enforcement of the statue would have permitted a crime to go undetected. Of course, the court could also find that there was no expectation of privacy in an office with an open door where children could be plainly heard in the background.

ACORN: The Cornered Rat Sues Videographer

What do miscreants do when confronted with their own wrongdoing? Punish those who expose it!

Acorn has sued the videographers that exposed Acorn employees who advised them to file fraudulent taxes and advised them on how to get a brothel, featuring 13 year old illegal immigrant girls, up and running as a successful small business. Those poor Acorn employees. They have suffered emotional distress from having their criminal advice exposed to public view. And Acorn fired them. So Acorn is paying for their lawyers to sue.

Associations of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Inc. et al. v. James E. O'Keefe III, et al., Baltimore City Circuit Court. Here is a pdf of the complaint. No word yet on the defense fund.

ACORN at Work

See more Political Cartoons at Townhall.com

More ACORN Scandal: Helping Illegals Get Loans for Homes

ACORN helping illegal aliens buy homes? Who'd a thunk it?

ACORN Hilarity

Hat tip EmytheImmigrant

Bertha Lewis: Rudeness Personified

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis was interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday today. Also interviewed was Congressman Issa, an ACORN critic. Congressman Issa was unfailingly courteous and polite. Bertha Lewis was, well, rude. She would not answer simple questions, but instead presented filibustery non-answers. Twice Congressman Issa politely addressed questions directly to her. She refused even to look in his direction.

Make your own judgment:



ACORN is a strange organization. One thing is clear: it works unabashedly for Democratic candidates. Bertha Lewis made some reference to firewalls between organizations. No politically oriented organization should be getting federal money. Money given for program X frees up other money that can be used for political purposes. No firewall can protect against that sort of budget shifting.

ACORN may do some good work for the poor. Fine. Let it do so in peace (after rooting out the criminal behavior), but don't make me pay for it through my tax dollars if there is any chance that my tax dollars will help ACORN find the funds for its political activities..

Rep. Jerrold Nadler: Nut of the Day

Get this. U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler actually issued a press release saying that defunding ACORN violates its constitutional rights.

Really?

So now, according to Representative Nadler, ACORN supposedly has a constitutional right to keep receiving your tax dollars to ... do what? Help elect Democrats? Help pimps and prostitutes start brothels?

Seriously, no nonprofit organization has a constitutional right to get taxpayer dollars to continue its work, whatever it is. No matter hos legitimate or worthy.

The press release is simply stupid. What it really means is the Nadler wants ACORN's help in the next election. You watch.

Jay Leno On Acorn

The ACORN scandal makes the big time.

Breaking: House Passes Measure to Cut Off All Acorn Funding

Appended to a sweeping student loan bill, there House passed a measure that according to the Wall Street Journal would cut off all Federal funding for Acorn.

The House attached a measure to the student-loan bill ending all federal government funding of the community organizing group Acorn -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The group has long been in the cross hairs of Republicans, but more recently has been accused of widespread fraud and other illegal activities.

Of course, nothing is final until passed by the Senate and signed by the President.

h/t Michelle Malkin (who has the actual vote). And don't forget biggovernment.com who has been all over this story.

ACORN - Taxpayers Paying for Liberal Activism. Updated. Further Update: LA Subpoenas Issued

ACORN is a blatantly partisan group that says it is non-partisan. But everyone knows it is partisan. The defensive statements of Bertha Lewis essentially acknowledge that ACORN is a partisan being attacked by the other side. There is hardly even a pretense of non-partisanship.

So, given that, why is ACORN the recipient of massive amounts of government money? It is simply wrong to use taxpayer dollars to fund partisan organizations in any small part, even if they may do some useful community work.

A church may run a food kitchen, but that does not authorize the government to fund the church activities.

I suspect the answer may lay in the many layered organization of ACORN. It is said to have hundreds of related organizations. None of the media reports have really delved into the relationships with any clarity, except the relationship with SEIU. I suspect the web of organizations to a bit too complex. Why are there so many? Are there several separately incorporated in each state? Will anyone with the time unravel this mystery? Is it worth doing?

With the calls for investigations, someone will have to unravel the tangle. It will be a tedious job. I hope there are some out there in the media with the skills to reveal the mysteries in an understandable way.

Only then will we get a glimpse of the many ways ACORN is abusing taxpayer money for liberal advocacy.

Update: A similar article on BigGovernment.com In related news, Big Government is reporting that the Attorney General of Louisiana last month issued subpoenas for corporate records of ACORN, apparently related to the alleged cover up of embezzlement by Dale Rathke, the ACORN founder Wade Rathke's brother. A copy of the first page of the subpoena can be seen. If the subpoena was issued last month, I suspect the response date has passed, unless it was extended.