Hey, big spender! Lavish life of ACORN 'thief'

NY Post ^ | Sept. 27, 2009 | GINGER ADAMS OTIS

[COUNTrecount]

Former ACORN bigwig Dale Rathke racked up a $157,000 American Express bill that he couldn't repay around the time he was caught embezzling from the group founded by his brother Wade, The Post has learned.

Rathke was a big spender with multiple credit cards who rang up purchases at luxury shops, traveled by limo and frequented five-star hotels and restaurants, court papers show.

American Express filed a claim against Rathke in 2003 in Louisiana civil district court.

Among the court papers is a partial credit history that indicates Rathke had several different cards from different companies. He used them to shop at places like Gucci and Neiman Marcus, where he spent $1,003 and $1,742 respectively on July 6, 2000.

In November, he traveled to New York, renting a limo and plunking down $2,000 for a stay at the Waldorf-Astoria and $700 for a gourmet dinner at La Cote Basque.

The brothers were booted from the group last year after the national board discovered Dale had embezzled $948,607 between 1999 and 2000 -- and that the two Rathkes covered up his crime with the help of a few ACORN execs.

Dale, who was in charge of ACORN's financial arm, continued to make $46,000 a year on the community-activity group's payroll until 2008.

ACORN, which has received $53 million in federal funds since 1994, hasn't revealed the details of Dale's fraud except to say it was related to improper use of company credit cards.

[ghost of nixon]

LOL! Bertha Lewis is only a sympathetic minority/female face to put in front of the cameras. The real redicals/crooks that run ACORN are hiding from the public.

[TheMole]

Yes, brother Dale was living it up on the loot Wade's operation was pulling in. He hung out in the upscale New Orleans social scene. Let's see if we can get some images to upload.

First, the opening of the NOLA Film Festival as reported in New York Social Diary:

That's Dale relaxing on the left.

Next up, it's Social Scene: Overture to the Cultural Season party and Cefalutana Society 'Festa' on the social events page of nola.com:

The original caption reads: OVERTURE PARTY: Dale Rathke, Anita Garcia, Margie Mielke, Jeannine Mielke.

Personally, I really think we have to hand it to Dale for spending this money on worthy social causes rather than the destructive nihilism of ACORN. Likewise, who can't sympathize with Dale wanting to hang with old money instead of the riffraff down at the ACORN office?