Thread: Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy, Two Leaders Say

Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy, Two Leaders Say

By IAN URBINA
Published: March 19, 2010
Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy, Two Leaders Say

BALTIMORE — The community organizing group Acorn, battered politically from the right and suffering from mismanagement along with a severe loss of government and membership funds, is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy, leaders of the group said Friday.

Two Acorn officials said the organization was holding a teleconference this weekend to discuss plans for a bankruptcy filing. The officials asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

Over the last six months, at least 15 of the group’s 30 state chapters have disbanded and have no plans of re-forming, Acorn officials said. The California and New York chapters, two of the largest, have severed their ties to the national group and have independently reconstituted themselves with new names. Several other state groups are also re-forming outside the Acorn umbrella, and will not be affected if the national organization files for bankruptcy.

This week, the Maryland chapter announced that it would not reopen its offices, which were shuttered in September in the wake of a widely publicized series of video recordings made by two conservative activists, posing as a prostitute and a pimp, who secretly filmed Acorn workers providing them tax advice. In the videos, Acorn workers told one of the activists, James E. O’Keefe III, who was disguised as a pimp, how to hide prostitution activities from the authorities and avoid taxes, raising no objections to his proposed criminal activities.

After the activists’ videos came to light and swiftly became fodder for 24-hour cable news coverage, private donations from foundations to Acorn all but evaporated and the federal government quickly distanced itself from the group.

The Census Bureau ended its partnership with the organization for this year’s census, the Internal Revenue Service dropped Acorn from its Voluntary Income Tax Assistance program, and Congress voted to cut off all grants to the group.

A network that once included more than 1,000 grass-roots groups, Acorn, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, was created in 1970 and has fought for liberal causes like raising the minimum wage, registering the poor to vote, stopping predatory lending and expanding affordable housing.

But long before the activist videos delivered what may become the final blow, the organization was dogged for years by financial problems and accusations of fraud. In the summer of 2008, infighting erupted over embezzlement of Acorn funds by the brother of the organization’s founder. Some chapters were also found to have submitted voter application forms with incorrect information on them during the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election, leading to blistering charges from conservative organizations linking Acorn’s errors to the Obama campaign.

“That 20-minute video ruined 40 years of good work,â€

ok. i missed something here. umm. what's a seventy two year old blind woman ( can i assume she's unemployeed?) doing with a $1500.00 mortgage? how many of us folks who can still see; can afford a $1500.00 mortgage. i mean, golly. i'm struggling every month just to pay rent and i can see just fine! what is going on in this parallel universe where a blind 72 year old women struggling to get by on social security....oh forget it.

don't bother

look. i don't hate blind people, not even old ones. it makes me sad that there was no one else to help this woman (no church or family?) other than this band of thieves and i have to wonder what she had to give up for this "help." we can afford to payout billions in welfare supplements for those that are here against the law, but when it comes to an elderly American citizen, she's on her own. i am getting mad again.

Just watch that all these 1,000-plus groups will be reforming under another name, rather than being an ACORN affiliate. In a few years, the Community Help group will join with the others under new names and go on their merry way restructuring ACORN again.
Corporations do this all the time.

The community organizing group Acorn, battered politically from the right and suffering from mismanagement along with a severe loss of government and membership funds, is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy, leaders of the group said Friday.

Filing for bankruptcy is a despicable, egregious act!! Let them pay off their debts like real people do.

Originally Posted by vortex

Just watch that all these 1,000-plus groups will be reforming under another name, rather than being an ACORN affiliate. In a few years, the Community Help group will join with the others under new names and go on their merry way restructuring ACORN again.
Corporations do this all the time.

Ditto!! People with this radical agenda, under the mantra of social change and access to corrupt politicians, who are all to willing to hand over our tax dollars never go away!! They just morph into some other entity and resurface..

Like Frank Nitti once said, "They gotta go."

a fellow patriot