ACORN’s Relentless Push To Deceive Taxpayers Continues

ACORN is attempting to perpetrate yet another spectacular fraud on the American people in order to keep tax dollars and foundation grants flowing into its coffers.

With the fallout from the hidden camera videos last fall, congressional funding of ACORN’s election fraud and racketeering business is no longer guaranteed, so ACORN is trying to pass off various state chapters as ”new” groups.

As part of the radical group’s fraudulent rebranding scheme, ACORN has renamed its New York chapter New York Communities for Change. Unlike on the West coast where ACORN is at least pretending its renamed California chapter (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment or ACCE) is not part of the ACORN network, New York Communities for Change shares the same Nevins Street address as ACORN’s Brooklyn office.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts branch of ACORN has been renamed New England United for Justice.

ACORN national president Maude Hurd just happens to be president of the new supposedly independent group, according to articles of incorporation certified by Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin on Jan. 19, 2010. The articles show the office address of New England United for Justice as 196 Adams St., Dorchester, MA 02122, which happens to be the address of Boston ACORN.

More state-level name changes are expected soon while the basic structure of ACORN, which is controlled from the top using interlocking directorates, remains essentially intact.

The ACORN network’s interlocking directorates are deliberately organized to help ACORN escape legal and public scrutiny. “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,” according to a report from the Republican investigators of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Under indictment in Nevada for election law violations, ACORN feels it can do all this in the light of day because the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress have no interest in a real investigation of its criminal activities.

These improprieties include but are in no way limited to:

*a nearly $1 million embezzlement by the founder’s brother that was covered up for eight years while the brother (Dale Rathke) remained on the ACORN payroll

*misuse of pension funds

*commingling of public funds

*illegal loan from ERISA-covered pension fund

*failure to pay excise tax on illegal loan

*use of public funds on partisan activities

*money laundering

ACORN doesn’t care about the growing mountain of credible allegations against it because ACORN thinks it is politically untouchable.

(NOTE: various versions of this blog post were crossposted elsewhere.)