ACORN Embezzlement May Have Been $5 Million (Updated)
[Guest post by DRJ]
The ACORN hits just keep coming:
“An internal review by the board of directors of the community organization ACORN determined that the amount allegedly embezzled from the community organization was $5 million, well more than the previously reported amount of nearly $1 million, according to a new subpoena in an investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell.
The subpoena, released this afternoon, says, “It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds.”
ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis labeled the accusation “completely false.”
I posted earlier on the Louisiana investigation here.
— DRJ
UPDATE 10/6/2009: More problems for ACORN. Pam Geller at Atlas Shrugs has an exclusive interview with a Jacksonville FL woman who says the local ACORN office threw out Republican voter registrations.
It was a personal piggy bank. Why would Dale and Wade stop at under $1 million if nobody was checking up on them? It makes no sense.
If the $5 million figure was given out at a board meeting which Bertha attended, it sounds like her denial is based purely on technicalities, e.g., it wasn’t all one entity, even though they are all related.
daleyrocks (718861) — 10/5/2009 @ 5:06 pmACORN CEO Bertha Lewis labeled the accusation “completely false.”
Well, that settles it!
AD - RtR/OS! (03146a) — 10/5/2009 @ 5:09 pmIt is obviously worse than all reports, since Ms.Lewis couldn’t tell the truth about what day it is.
Interesting, because on National Review Online Wade Rathke claimed that the amount embezzled was slightly under $1 million and that it had been repaid. If it was a larger figure that would almost certainly put the lie to Rathke’s claims, wouldn’t it?
JVW (d1215a) — 10/5/2009 @ 5:12 pmHas anyone associated with ACORN ever told the truth about anything?
AD - RtR/OS! (03146a) — 10/5/2009 @ 5:21 pmNope, AD.
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/5/2009 @ 5:22 pmI breathlessly await the upcoming investigation by the MSM of SEIU, since the former ACORN embezzler has been there for a few years.
Dmac (5ddc52) — 10/5/2009 @ 5:35 pmWow. They neeed to investigate this pronto.
Maybe set up a panel of people to determine the truth of the accusations. Say, Kevin Jennings, Yosi Sargent, Van Jones, and Bill Richardson.
wt (ed53e0) — 10/5/2009 @ 6:38 pmI wonder how this will factor into any upcoming Breitbart revelations, or ACORN’s moronic decision to sue.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 10/5/2009 @ 7:49 pmAlso, let’s give the Times-Picayune some credit for reporting this, and posting the subpoena.
If the paper had been the LA Times, the story might have received one paragraph on the bottom of A-17.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 10/5/2009 @ 7:55 pmBrother Bradley:
I think you may have hit on a small, but important, distinction about the press. And, I’m extremely guilty of ignoring it.
All politics are local.
The Times-Picayune is a local paper that has to cover this story because, otherwise, they would be useless, not only to their readers, but to themselves. In a one-party town, they know that the one party has to be held accountable, despite whatever leanings they have on a national basis.
The big papers in New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago believe they are above the fray of local politics because they have a “national” audience.
They can ignore the incestuous corruption of their local, one-party governments because they are championing the greater good of the nation.
Ag80 (fb11c7) — 10/5/2009 @ 8:59 pmBigGovernment.com is down this morning. Traffic, or dos attack?
Amphipolis (b120ce) — 10/6/2009 @ 5:27 amAg80,
Yes, you nailed it. The LA Times for years was a NY Times wannabe, run by editors whose heart really wasn’t in the community they ostensibly served.
Amphipolis,
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 10/6/2009 @ 5:47 amBigGovernment was up when I checked.
I still can’t access it.
Amphipolis (b120ce) — 10/6/2009 @ 6:16 amObama is going to leave a pent up demand for Special Councils after he leaves office. Will Obama be the first President jailed or will the Republican be stupid enough to pardon him?
PCD (1d8b6d) — 10/6/2009 @ 6:39 amTry cleaing your cache on another site, Amphipolis. Or try accessing it from another link.
Dmac (5ddc52) — 10/6/2009 @ 7:54 amThis is just ONE state. Think of the national implications.
lmrapp (531f14) — 10/6/2009 @ 8:03 amBertha Lewis has enough credibility to be Treasury Secretary.
I predict she will be the new Truth Czar.
MU789 (3f9d29) — 10/6/2009 @ 8:20 amI got it at about 10:30 (eastern)
Amphipolis (b120ce) — 10/6/2009 @ 8:43 amThe 5 mil number has been floating around a while. Not really a revelation, yannow?
mojo (8096f2) — 10/6/2009 @ 11:11 amLawyery Question: Doesn’t Dale Rathke owe the IRS for the money he embezzled? They’ve never been very picky about how your money is made as long as they get their vig.
SaintGeorgeGentile (6dc74c) — 10/6/2009 @ 3:39 pmI’ve updated the post with more allegations of wrongdoing by ACORN, this time in Jacksonville FL.
DRJ (b008f8) — 10/6/2009 @ 8:13 pmDRJ – That update’s funny. I thought ACORN always claimed they had to turn in all the registrations they received, which is why the fraudulent ones got turned in along with the good ones. If Pam follows up on this story and it pans out, it sounds like there are some more bad apples on the loose in ACORN.
I’ve never bothered to research ACORN’s assertions about being forced to turn in obviously fraudulent registrations. Do you know anybody who has written about that?
daleyrocks (718861) — 10/6/2009 @ 9:00 pmdaley,
Here’s a typical example of ACORN’s defense to claims it falsifies voter registrations:
Like you, I remembered ACORN making this defense but I thought it had been raised in Las Vegas and reported in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. I couldn’t find it there but I did find this, including this description of a new ACORN canvasser and a new voter:
In addition, earlier this week, ACORN itself (not just one or more of its members) was held over for trial for felony voter fraud in Las Vegas.
DRJ (b008f8) — 10/6/2009 @ 9:20 pmA Few Links That Caught My Interest…
ACORN Embezzlement May Have Been $5 Million (Updated)
Truth Before Dishonor (962ecf) — 10/6/2009 @ 9:22 pmOne Rathky brother was thrown out of ACORN for embezzling nearly a mil (which turns out may be more like 5 mil) so he became a SEIU (that’s government employee union) big-shot while his brothe…
DRJ – When people make a big deal about the number of fraudulent registrations, I believe ACORN has trotted out that as a standard defense – we point out the bogus registrations for the authorities and are required to turn each completed registration in even if we know they are bad.
I have not ever seen the assertions fact checked.
daleyrocks (718861) — 10/6/2009 @ 9:28 pm