A new congressional report reveals that a number of political candidates received support from the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN), which is in violation tax and election laws.

 

The report was presented by the Republicans on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, which has jurisdiction to investigate any federal program, as well as any matters that have federal policy implications. The report, titled “Follow the Money: ACORN, SEIU and their Political Allies,” is a continuation of a previous ACORN report released in July of 2009 that “explained how ACORN used a complex organizational structure of overlapping nonprofit community initiatives and political lobbying activities to conceal the partisan political use of taxpayer and private monies originally designated for the public benefit. The report found there was no real separation between ACORN and its affiliates. ACORN is a single corrupt corporate enterprise composed of a series of holding companies and subsidiaries that are financially and operationally dependent upon the main corporation.”

 

ACORN called the original report a “partisan hack job,” prompting a spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking minority member of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, to say that the report “hit a nerve.” Since then, ACORN was exposed on a number of occasions giving advice undercover independent reporters, posing as a pimp and his prostitute, on how to launder their earnings to qualify for a mortgage. As a result, a law prohibiting taxpayer funding to ACORN was passed. The group had also been in the process of losing funding from several large charitable foundations. Also, ACORN’s CEO Bertha Lewis resigned as Co-Chair of the Working Families Party, an ACORN front group which is an outgrowth of the socialist New Party.

 

The new report “adds new evidence confirming these previous findings of ACORN’s misconduct in addition to a closer examination of ACORN’s financial transactions and fundraising that define the organization as a political machine.”

 

The four crucial findings within the new report are:

 

First, ACORN and SEIU‘s illegal agreements, and the crimes committed in furtherance of these agreements, constitutes a criminal conspiracy.

 

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Second, there is a pattern, signature or “trade secret” of corruption common to all ACORN affiliates called “Muscle for the Money.”

 

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Third, ACORN, as a corporation, is responsible for thousands of fraudulent voter registrations throughout the United States.

 

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Fourth, ACORN contributed to the risky lending that led to the financial collapse.

 

Other troubling information in the report includes the fact that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and ACORN are financially and politically codependent. Additionally, the SEIU/ACORN uses its size, wealth and influence to advance its agenda and policies using political connections, backroom deals, PR, intimidation and litigation.

 

The report in its entirety can be found here.