Under the aegis of its Foundation, the ACLU could get away with financial murder. Within that structure all kinds of financial misdeeds can be hidden.
For example, it would be interesting to know what kind of financial activities officers of publicly-traded corporations engaged in and whether their donations to the ACLU were properly accounted for on company financial statements, whether shareholders were duly notified of corporate ACLU donations, whether the donations were made from corporate funds in the names of private individuals, and whether the ACLU itself properly accounted for these donations when filing official statements.
If the ACLU rigged its federal and state funding statements in collusion with officers of publicly-held companies who filed false financial instruments, that would be considered aiding and abetting the commission of federal and state crimes.
Employing fraudulent accounting practices in order to cover-up corporate wrongdoing would have jeopardized the financial interests of stockholders, corporate associates and partners, which would compel the SEC to step in.
If you're a shareholder confronted with this problem, you can contact the SEC here: enforcement@sec.gov
Furthermore, as part of the Tax Exempt Compensation Enforcement Project, the IRS intends to examine non-profit organizations (NPO), to learn more about the practices nonprofits follow as they fill out Form 990, the main public disclosure documents for charities and foundations, and whether accounting fraud and tax evasion is taking place, and whether the compensation of specific individuals is excessive and, and whether instances of questionable compensation practices may evade IRS, banking and SEC laws.
The IRS will examine NPO insider transactions, such as (1) loans, the (2) sale, (3) exchange or (4) leasing of property to non-profit officers and others. In particular, the IRS will look to see how organizations report (5) "excess benefit transactions" on Form 990, and (6) executive pay.
The IRS could determine whether the ACLU----through its Foundation----is properly accounting for all of its activities including tax-funded activities, whether it is inflating legal costs, and whether the ACLU is using tax dollars for the purposes stated. Form 990, the main public disclosure documents for NPO's, including charities and foundations, could determine whether accounting fraud and tax evasion is taking place, and whether the compensation of specific ACLU individuals is excessive and, and whether instances of questionable ACLU compensation practices may evade the IRS, and US banking laws.
We need to know whether the ACLU might be engaged in Enron-style accounting and spending practices using tax dollars for personal expenses, for example, and whether the ACLU is cooking the books.
Liz, and all thanks.
Ye who I pinged, can you add more to this thread? Let's make this thing snowball and break the ACLU's back. I think $147 MILLION in their foundation is enough.
The problem is that the legal industry, unlike all other industrys, is exempt from public viewing of its self-policing. If a medical doctor, for example, is brought before the medical board for some supposed misdeed, it gets on the news and we get to watch the process and progress. Not so with complaints brought to the the American, or State, Bar Gang(s).
It doesn't matter the entity, agency, government function, or private practice with which the legal professional is associated. The American public has no access to understanding the investigative functions, etc. If your district court is being investigated by any controlling authority, you may never know about it, or how it was mitigated. HDR