Acorn found not guilty...............

[greenberetTFS]

As a prostitute and her boyfriend lie about her profession and launder her earnings did not commit a crime, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said Monday.



The office began its investigation Sept. 15, the day after the video was released online by the conservative activists who posed as an outlaw couple seeking help buying a house. It was but one in a series of such videos filmed at ACORN offices around the country that sparked a national scandal and helped drive the organization to near ruin.



"We are gratified that the district attorney, after a thorough investigation, found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by ACORN," said a statement by Jean Sassine, a spokeswoman for the organization that has replaced ACORN's Brooklyn operation.



Several of ACORN's local offices have officially disbanded and resumed operations under new names and with similar staff in an effort to escape the scandal that has surrounded the 40-year-old organization in recent months. In Brooklyn, the newly established New York Communities for Change "is committed to moving forward with management and transparency reforms and building a strong independent organization to advocate for low-income New Yorkers," Sassine said.



The videos were made by conservative activists Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe, who used a hidden camera on visits to ACORN offices in Brooklyn; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; California and elsewhere. The videos created a political and media firestorm when they were released, adding to problems the organization had faced as it was dogged by allegations of voter-registration fraud and embezzlement. In September, Congress blocked previously approved funds from going to ACORN.



"Hopefully today's announcement, and similar results from independent reviews, will make politicians and media examine the facts more carefully the next time a valuable community organization is attacked," ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan said Monday in a statement.



But Kurt Bardella, spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, said Monday that ongoing federal and state investigations "will expose the criminal nature of ACORN's deliberate effort to abuse taxpayer dollars to advance a radical political agenda."



The two ACORN employees who were recorded handling the couple's case in Brooklyn were fired, and ACORN brought in ex-Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger to perform an internal investigation, which concluded there was no criminal conduct.



Since then, O'Keefe and three others have been arrested and accused of trying to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office phones. O'Keefe has denied the charges and said the group was trying to investigate complaints that constituents calling the Democrat's office couldn't get through to criticize her support of a healthcare overhaul bill.

Big Teddy

[incarcerated]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...ge-bankruptcy/

Report: ACORN on the Verge of Bankruptcy

FOXNews.com
Officials from the group told the New York Times it is dealing with "mismanagement along with a severe loss of government and membership funds."
Updated March 20, 2010
The liberal activist group ACORN is suffering from a steep loss of funding and will this weekend discuss plans to file for bankruptcy in a teleconference, the New York Times reported.

Officials from the group told the Times it is dealing with "mismanagement along with a severe loss of government and membership funds."

The group is reeling from a disbanding of at least 15 of its 30 state chapters while its large New York and California chapters have set up fresh organizations.

ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, describes itself as an advocate for low-income and minority home buyers and residents....

[echoes]

Originally Posted by incarcerated

ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, describes itself as an advocate for low-income and minority home buyers and residents....

...These folks deserve an old fashioned Bitch Slap, IMVHO!!!

What a bunch of Trash!!!

ACORN: Absolute Corrupt Organizers (of) Really Nothing

Holly

[Green Light]

It's been a criminal enterprise for years. The two founding brothers are crooks, one of whom used the organization as a personal piggy bank to the tune of $2,000,000. They beat the embezzlement rap by getting a large contributor to cover the funds that were lost. The connections are amazing and rich.

Corrupt politicians have use it in places like (cough) Chicago to launder money meant as charity donations. ACORN has also used "volunteers" who were paid by quotas to get voter registrations. This was used to overload local voter registrar offices, leaving them open to other forms of political sabotage, which is still under investigation.

These folks are bad news. If they hadn't had political cover for so long, there'd be a lot of crooks copping pleas. But they they've gone "underground" by fading into one of their dozens of other organizations, some of which trace their roots back to the same building in New Orleans where ACORN used to have its headquarters.

Stay tuned.

[incarcerated]

Originally Posted by Green Light

It's been a criminal enterprise for years....The connections are amazing and rich.

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/g...asp?grpid=6968

http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/v1225223330.pdf

http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/v1225222922.pdf

http://www.capitalresearch.org/blog/...orn-report.pdf

[Paslode]

And both the Bush and Obama administrations have declined to have the DOJ investigate them.

[BrainStorm]

Originally Posted by Paslode

And both the Bush and Obama administrations have declined to have the DOJ investigate them.

You may be overestimating the ability of any administration to control the careerists who inhabit the agencies they are supposed to manage. The DOJ and the State Department are the most egregious examples of this, but little effort is required to find lots of other examples.

[incarcerated]

From Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62L5W320100322

Liberal group ACORN to formally disband

CHICAGO
Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:49pm EDT
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The liberal grass-roots group ACORN will formally disband on April 1 due to falling revenues, as its state chapters reorganize, the group said on Monday.

Most of the 20 chapters of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which endorsed President Barack Obama during his 2008 campaign, have disbanded on their own and reorganized under new names, a source within the group said....

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...112658930.html

Acorn Disbanding, Housing Offshoot to Remain

MARCH 23, 2010
By JAMES R. HAGERTY And BRODY MULLINS
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as Acorn, is disbanding, the community activist group said Monday.

The group long helped register low-income people to vote in ways that were widely viewed as helping Democrat candidates. But scandals in recent years sapped Acorn's credibility, making it an embarrassment for Democrats and a target for Republicans. Those scandals also made it hard for Acorn to raise money, prompting the decision to close down what was once a national organization.

A large offshoot formerly known as Acorn Housing, which counsels low-income homeowners, has changed its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America and plans to continue operations, officials of that group said....

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...AZA6AD9EEVUT80

ACORN branches rename, rebrand after video scandal

By MICHAEL TARM (AP) – Mar 15, 2010
CHICAGO — Affiliates of the once mighty liberal activist group ACORN are remaking themselves in a desperate bid to ditch the tarnished name of their parent organization and restore federal grants and other revenue streams that ran dry in the wake of a video scandal.

The letters A, C, O, R and N are coming off office doors from New York to California. Business cards are being reprinted. New signs with new names are popping up in front of offices.

The breakaways are trying to shed the scandal that emerged six months ago when videos showed some ACORN workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute. But while their names are different, most groups have kept the same offices and staff.

That, critics say, means the groups really haven't started anew and severed all ties to ACORN, which faced accusations of mismanagement and rampant voter registration fraud well before the video brouhaha sent even longtime Democratic backers scattering....

A distinguishing feature of ACORN for years has been its complex web of affiliates, some of which shared money and manpower without ever assuming ACORN's name, said Frederick Hill, spokesman for Republicans on the U.S. House oversight and government reform committee.

"The idea that some ACORN organizations are trying to obscure who they really are should be troubling to Americans," he said.

A recent report on ACORN compiled by the House Republicans whom Hill represents describes ACORN as a "shell game" with a structure "designed to conceal illegal activities, to use taxpayer and tax-exempt dollars for partisan political purposes, and to distract investigators."

To credibly claim a clean break, argued Hill, the new groups should at least have hired directors from outside ACORN.

"But I can't tell you of a single example our committee has seen where we say, 'Geez, it really looks like they're purging all the individuals who are with national ACORN,'" he said....

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http://www.housingwatch.com/2010/03/...-new-identity/

ACORN Housing Sprouts New Identity

By Alyssa Katz Mar 18th 2010 @ 10:30AM
When the community organizing group ACORN fell to a notorious video sting last year by conservative activists posing as a "pimp" and a "ho," some of the biggest losers were thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure. Fortunately for them, ACORN's affiliated housing organization has returned under a new identity, as the Affordable Housing Centers of America.

For the last 25 years, ACORN Housing Corporation, a spinoff from the main group, had been an important advocate for low-income homeowners. It ran mortgage borrower counseling services out of 33 offices from coast to coast, and homeowners benefited from the group's affiliation with ACORN, which successfully fought predatory lenders like Ameriquest when federal regulators refused to....

[Ret10Echo]

So far I have seen reports our of DFW and DC about offices closing. This is most likely going to be a game of whack-a-mole. These folks aren't going away anytime soon.

ACORN's Capitol Hill office shutting down
By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 25, 2010

The ACORN sign has come down, and a big "for lease" notice is posted in a window of the Washington office of the community activist group, whose leaders announced this week that they are closing state chapters across the country.

The Capitol Hill office, which had become an increasingly important location for ACORN, is shutting down six months after the organization was hammered by scandal.

"The local DC ACORN office will be closed by April 1st, like other ACORN field offices around the country," Kevin Whelan, ACORN's communications director, said in a statement. Several chapters across the country have formed similar groups with new names, but he said he does not expect one to set up in Washington.

Most of the staff members of the national office in Washington have left, Whelan said, but a few are doing wrap-up work and will remain for the time being.

The network of organizations, once powerful in its ability to mobilize low- and middle-income voters, began to falter after an alleged embezzlement scandal and coverup involving the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke was revealed in 2008.

ACORN offices in Dallas-Fort Worth appear closed
By ANNA M. TINSLEY They fought for lower utility rates, street and safety improvements, and affordable housing -- and for candidates who supported those issues.
Now, about a year after the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now closed its doors in Fort Worth, shifting Metroplex operations to its Dallas headquarters, that office is empty. And state and national ACORN officials have said they are shutting down most operations by Thursday.
The community activist group became a lightning rod amid charges of voter fraud and a controversy surrounding a video of ACORN workers giving tax advice to people posing as a prostitute and pimp. ACORN has since struggled for federal and private funding and apparently never could recover.
"ACORN has faced a series of well-orchestrated, relentless, well-funded right-wing attacks that are unprecedented since the McCarthy era," said Bertha Lewis, CEO of what has been the nation's largest community activist organization.
Some speculate that the group will reorganize under different names to continue at least some of the missions ACORN pursued.
Despite the nationwide criticism of the group, Sharon Armstrong of Fort Worth said the organization helped local residents.
"It was bad the way everything went down with the national office," said Armstrong, a former volunteer for the group. "They did fantastic work and ... it did a lot of good.
"People are being disenfranchised ... and they need something like ACORN to help them," she said.

This link give a quick summary of closings all around....

[Box]

why isnt there an "ACORN" on the other side of the political spectrum ?

[nmap]

Originally Posted by Billy L-bach

why isnt there an "ACORN" on the other side of the political spectrum ?

Good question - and I've never seen an answer.

It's not like they make a secret of how they do things.

[incarcerated]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...0,497720.story

California probe clears ACORN of criminal activity

By Maura Dolan
April 1, 2010 | 8:56 p.m
California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said in a report Thursday that the community organizing group ACORN engaged in "highly inappropriate behavior" in the state but violated no criminal law.

Brown's office launched an investigation of ACORN’s California operations at the request of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September, after the release of videos that appeared to show ACORN employees advising people about how to engage in prostitution and other illegal activity....

"ACORN in California was disorganized and very poorly managed," Brown's report said. "It failed to recruit, train and monitor its employees to ensure compliance with California law."

....The report said ACORN probably violated state civil laws by disposing of thousands of pages containing confidential information about employees, members and other individuals in a trash bin, failing to file a 2007 state tax return and engaging in four instances of possible voter registration fraud in San Diego.

ACORN also was unable to document how it used charitable funds raised for the victims of Southern California wildfires, the report said. But the probe "determined that ACORN spent more than it likely raised for the fire victims, and therefore further action into this issue is not a wise use of the state's resources," the report said.

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by Billy L-bach

why isnt there an "ACORN" on the other side of the political spectrum ?

I think the ones on the "other" side usually end up getting subpoenaed and shut down by the Justice Dept or raided by the FBI/ATF......

[Ret10Echo]

Off the radar, but still taking your money...

ACORN Spinoff Smacked Down by HUD Inspector General
by Connie Hair (more by this author)
Posted 09/24/2010 ET

A new report out from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) inspector general recommends placement of ACORN spinoff entity on “inactive” status due to legal violations.

In response to a September 16, 2009 request by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), top Republican on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Inspections and Evaluations Division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released a report detailing the results of its investigation of grant funds awarded under HUD’s Housing Counseling Program to ACORN Housing Corporation, Inc. (AHC) of Chicago, now operating as Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA).”

“For continued approval as a HUD-approved housing counseling agency and for future awards consideration, AHC (now operating as AHCOA) must bring its operations into full compliance with applicable laws, regulators, and policies governing HUD’s Housing Counseling Program,” the OIG’s report recommends. “The inability to fully support salary expenses allocated to the HUD grant raises serious concerns about the integrity of those charges, particularly given the millions of Federal and non-Federal dollars made available to AHC in FY 2008 and 2009. Further, services procured from ACORN “associated” organizations failed to meet the required tests of ‘open and free competition’. We recommend that HUD’s Office of Single Family Housing, Program Support Division consider placing AHCOA in ‘inactive’ status while its initiatives corrective actions to address the exceptions and recommendations in this report.”

“Any organization that applies for and accepts taxpayer dollars has a responsibility to act consistently with federal law,” Issa said when the report was released. “It doesn’t matter if its ten dollars or ten thousand dollars, there is no acceptable amount of abuse or mismanagement that the federal government should tolerate when it comes to the taxpayer’s dollars.”

The OIG’s findings included:

• HUD has awarded ACORN more than $19 million in housing counseling grants since 1995.


• ACORN received $3,252,399 in housing counseling grants between 2008 and 2009. More than $2.544 million (nearly 80%) of the HUD grants were used to pay ACORN’s salaries.


• ACORN may have concealed fraud by destroying or failing to produce records.


o “A determination could not be made as to what activities the employees performed or which grant to charge for those activities. Consequently, HUD had no assurance that it did not bear more than its fair share of the costs incurred for salary expenses of AHC’s counselors.” (p.10).


o “Availability of records impeded [HUD’s] attempt to trace AHC’s summary schedules of counselors’ salary expenses to the housing counseling activities that occurred[.]” (p.11).


• ACORN Housing received more than $27.269 million from other Federal and non-Federal sources.


o NeighborWorks, a congressionally chartered nonprofit, provided ACORN with $25,857,000 million.


o “AHC’s caseload allocation methodology for salary expenses to the HUD housing counseling grants proved problematic in an environment of multiple funding sources and was unsupported.” (p. 11).


o NeighborWorks grant funds were misappropriated as well. “The housing counseling service costs were either charged as salary expenses to the HUD housing counseling grants or as fees to the NeighborWorks’ NFMC [National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling] grants. For counselors who provided services under both grants, reimbursement of their salary costs for HUD billing purposes was based on a percentage derived from the ration of HUD to NFMC cases as opposed to using the actual number of hours attributable to the HUD counseling grant.” (p. 11).

Article is here

Report of the HUD OIG is here