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.....Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) who has faced ethics questions about earmarks he obtained on the Appropriations Committee.....

Mollohan is the paradigm crooked Congressman using earmarks and "foundations" for government fraud. All of the House earmarks should be examined for fraud----and all of their "foundations."

On a congressman's salary, Rep. Alan Mollohan's (D-W.Va.) net worth increased from about $100,000 in 2000 to $11.4 million in 2005, at the same time he was directing millions of government dollars in "earmarks" to nonprofit organizations in his district that are run by his business partner and some campaign contributors.

Duh----can you say kickbacks?

A closer examination revealed that Mollohan and his wife had more than $2,000,000 in real estate investments with Mollohan’s former staffer, Laura Kuhns, and her husband.

Kuhns also ran a nonprofit, Vandalia Heritage Foundation, which had received more than $28 million in Congressional appropriations earmarks with Mollohan's help from 2000 through 2005. Kuhns was also on the board of other nonprofit groups which had received over $100 million in earmarks of federal funds during the same period with Mollohan's help.

Mollohan's 2000 Financial Disclosure Report listed his income-producing assets as being worth from $179,012 to $562,000 with liabilities of $170,000 to $465,000. Among the liabilities was Visa credit card debt listed as $45,003 to $150,000. Just four years later, Mollohan's 2004 Financial Disclosure Report showed him with assets worth $6,313,025 to $24,947,000 offset by liabilities in the $3,665,011 to $13,500,000 range. It also showed him owning an oceanfront beach house on Bald Head Island, NC which was valued at $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. NLPC found that Mollohan was renting the beach house during the summer of 2005 for $11,975 a week.

Freedom of Information Act documents revealed thousands of pages of real estate, financial and legal documents. Slowly a picture of Mollohan's finances emerged that was sharply different from the one being portrayed in Mollohan’s Financial Disclosure Reports.

Using NPO's to siphon off monies is a classic swindle. The IRS has documented numerous financial scams by so-called "non-profits" and "foundations." Any number of financial frauds can be hidden in a non-profit (or Foundation) by calculatedly wrapping oneself in high-minded ideals with the intent of engaging in tax fraud.

The IRS should determine whether Mollohan's NPO is properly accounting for all its activities derived from government grants, and whether it is inflating legal costs, and whether it is using government grants for the purposes stated. Taxpayers need to know whether this NPO is engaged in Enron-style accounting and spending practices using government grants---which could be grounds for government fraud charges.

Let's tell it like it is----"earmarking" the practice of adding on to a Congressional appropriations bill ---- to fund a Congressman's own "foundation" is government fraud. Period.