Posted on 09/15/2009 9:40:55 AM PDT by BAW
Last week, we saw some pretty disturbing activities revealed in the undercover footage from ACORN Housing’s Baltimore office. By any measure of conduct, the actions of ACORN’s employees should never have happened. It turns out the actions shouldn’t have happened for another, very simple, reason: ACORN can’t legally operate in the state of Maryland.
According to the following documents, ACORN, Inc.–the parent organization of all things ACORN–forfeited its corporate charter in Maryland in 2006. ACORN Housing forfeited its corporate charter in 2008. Any ACORN office in the state of Maryland is potentially operating illegally.
The Maryland Attorney General has made noise about prosecuting the intrepid journalists who undercovered the misdeeds of ACORN employees. Perhaps he should focus instead on how ACORN was able to operate without a license in his state.
” it’s bush’s fault “
You say this in jest, I’m sure - but I’m thinking that, even though ACORN is a Democrat-front organization, there’s a good chance that some Republicans might get swept up in the net, too....
Why should they bother? ACORN has, by virtue of racial extortion, established itself as a federal and state government subsidized and protected organization that can thumb its nose at the law with impunity.
Absolutely. Nifong latched himself onto the wrong train, and got run over by it — or threw himself under the wheels. Good riddance.
This lady will end up embarrassing herself, unless she gets a call from the WH telling her to back off...
The they need to go.
Quick question. IF they are operating in MD without a corporate charter and illegaly, then there is no corporate shield and every officer and director is personally exposed. Liability insurance VOID if the corporate charter is invalid. Correct?
These people can be sued?
What about all of those scam transactions made and the govt money they took?
Ruh roh indeed
Do-Gooder Blues - Ex-Employees Expose Financial Problems at ACORN
City Paper (Baltimore, MD) - Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Author: Van Smith
Sandra Stewart wanted to be paid for the work she'd done. After graduating from Goucher College in May, Stewart followed a professor's advice in obtaining a position, starting on May 22 as a $250-per-week intern at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now ( ACORN ), a national social-justice group with a Maryland chapter based in Baltimore. On July 15 she wrote to City Paper, stating that she had left the job because “up until this morning it had been eight weeks exactly that I had not received any payment for my work.” That day she had received a $500 check from ACORN , she explained, but was still awaiting payment for the remaining six weeks of service.
It turns out that Stewart wasn't the only one looking for overdue payments from ACORN . At the time a City Paper inquiry began, the organization faced a Baltimore City tax-sale lien on its Charles Village property, a court judgment in Prince George's County for failure to pay a landlord for rented office space, and complaints from several other ex-employees about paycheck problems. By ACORN ‘s own admission that it has been having trouble administering payments to many part-time voter-registration workers it recently hired.
(snip)
At first, Stewart's former bosses- ACORN director Mitchell Klein and Baltimore County coordinator Michelle Moore-blamed the situation on Stewart, saying she failed to submit necessary paperwork. But by July 21, they were accepting fault for not paying Stewart in a timely fashion: “What happened to Sandi was bad,” Klein says apologetically.
After hearing of Stewart's complaint, City Paper searched the courts to see if ACORN was having problems making other payments. It was.
On June 22, a nearly $7,000 court judgment was entered against the group in favor of Bradco Realty, the owner of office space ACORN had been renting in Hyattsville.
“They were not paying us,” explains Bradco principal Michael Weinberger. “And we got tired of writing letters and making phone calls. Nobody even answered the phone. So we turned it over to a local attorney.”
On July 18, just as City PaperUapproached ACORN about the problem, the group paid the $7,000. Klein disputes Weinberger’s version of events, asserting that ACORN believed Bradco was overcharging them. “We lost,” Klein says. “And now we're paying.”
On June 30, another court action was filed against an ACORN affiliate, Baltimore Organizing and Support Center Inc. Short Line 2005 LLC filed a foreclosure lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court against the group, setting in motion a process that could have ended with Short Line 2005 owning ACORN ‘s building at 16 W. 25th St. Information obtained from the city's Finance Department revealed that the support center had not paid real estate taxes, water bills, and other city-administered fees since it purchased the property in 2004. As a result, the city's lien against the support center was sold at tax sale to Short Line 2005 in May 2005, and Short Line filed the suit in order to exercise its right to collect the money the center owed.
“This is the first time I'm hearing about this,” Klein stated when asked about the lawsuit on July 19. Later, Maryland ACORN ‘s board chair, the Rev. Gloria Swieringa, thanked City Paper “for pointing out a tremendously erroneous situation that had not been brought to our attention.” The same day, ACORN cut a check for more than $18,000 to settle the matter.
(snip)
After Stewart leveled her complaint about having a hard time getting paid by ACORN , three other ex-employees who recently left their jobs came forward, recalling similar problems. One, a former community organizer who claims ACORN still owes reimbursement money to him, asked to remain anonymous because the group requires workers to sign a statement that they won't talk to the press. (Klein confirms that ACORN ‘s employees are to have “no contact with the media without specific prior approval from a supervisor.”) The ex-employee did not want to risk his anticipated repayment by being quoted by name in an article.
“I did have to wait a number of weeks for my paycheck,” the ex-organizer says. “And I left because I decided I would no longer put up with their stuff. It seems to be a pretty routine thing.” He adds that “people have been getting angry with them for not getting paid.”
“I had problems getting paid,” Zuri Barnes, 28, also claims. The former community organizer worked for ACORN for seven months, he says, and was owed money after he quit recently. (Klein asserts that Barnes did not properly submit paperwork to get paid.) “I eventually got paid after numerous phone calls and going in and confronting my former boss,” he recalls. “I've heard cases of people who are still waiting to get paid. It's a major issue, and it all comes down to administration. And this is a group that does community organizing, and yet it is so disorganized.”
not sure how that could be. have they gave money to any rino’s??
” have they gave money to any rino’s?? “
I think they have tentacles that range wide and deep - and at this point in the discovery, nobody should be considered ‘above suspicion’....
We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg, right now....
You had to have a license to widen your driveway? Good God is there anything the goobermint won’t slap a tax on?
I suppose the Maryland AG will now try and prosecute BigGovenment for accessing MD state documents without permission.
Of course now ACORN will release a statement that they are shocked, SHOCKED, that this unaffiliated group was assisting hookers and pimps using ACORN’s name when ACORN doesn’t even have an office in Maryland.
We don’t need to obey no laws originally passed by slaveholders, Whitey. Got it? And that Constitution thingy. The same goes for it.
Though fines can be imposed they seldom are. The practical problems with not operating with a charter are that (i) the officers, directors and shareholders (probably no shareholders here) will lose the corporate protection against personal liability on lawsuits, and (ii) the organization loses the ability to bring suit in state courts.
Lets not get too wound up about his; there are much more legitimate and effective ways to attack them.
very interesting...
Laughs.
Oh! ACORN Operating illegally? Did they ever operate legally? Thats the easier question to answer really.
WELL WELL MR MARYLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL.....
nOW SINCE YOU ARE SO HELL BENT ON PROSECUTING PEOPLE UNCOVERING CORRUPTION.
MAYBE THERE SHOULD BE AN INVESTIGATION OF YOUR OFFICE.
Is the Maryland Attorney General complicite is the illegal activities of Acorn? Did he receive campaign funds from said Acorn? ahhhh...so many questions to be asked.
The Maryland AG is not the one who said anything about prosecuting the journalists. That was State’s Attorney Jessamy...she is the equivalent of a DA in MAryland.
Hmmmmmmm - Seems like ACORN has committed
Voter Fraud
Tax Evasion
Child Prostitution
IRS Fraud
Murder
And Obama was their lawyer and trainer.
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