ACORN Officials Videotaped Telling 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' How to Lie to IRS - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com
Officials with the controversial community organizing group ACORN were secretly videotaped offering to assist two individuals posing as a pimp and a prostitute, encouraging them to lie to the Internal Revenue Service and providing guidance on how to claim underage girls from South America as dependents.
The videotape was made public Thursday on BigGovernment.com, a political blog launched by Andrew Breitbart as a companion site to his BigHollywood.breitbart.com blog.
In the videotape, made on July 24, James O'Keefe, a 25-year-old independent filmmaker, posed as a pimp with a 20-year-old woman named "Kenya" who posed as a prostitute while visiting ACORN's office in Baltimore. The couple told ACORN staffers they wanted to secure housing where the woman could continue to maintain a prostitution business.
ACORN ? the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now ? bills itself as the nation's largest community of low- and moderate-income families "working together for social justice and stronger communities," according to its Web site. The organization has been accused by Republicans and conservative activists with fraud in voter registration drives around the country and has been under fire since last year for its support of President Obama and for its planned participation in next year's census.
A spokesman for ACORN, Scott Levenson, when asked to comment on the videotape, said: "The portrayal is false and defamatory and an attempt at gotcha journalism. This film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed. ACORN wants to see the full video before commenting further."
On the videotape, "Kenya" can be seen telling an ACORN staffer that she earns roughly $8,000 a month. The ACORN employee then suggests to "Kenya" that ACORN could submit a tax return for 2008 showing that she made $9,600 for the entire year ? instead of $96,000 ? and that ACORN would charge "Kenya" $50 instead of the usual $150 fee for preparing her taxes.
ACORN offers tax preparation and benefits application services free of charge during tax season; it charges nominal fees during non-tax season.
The ACORN staffer can also be seen suggesting that the prostitute list her occupation as a freelance "performing artist."
"It's not dancing, trust me," the "pimp" says.
"But dancing is considered an art," the ACORN staffer replies. "[Exotic dancers] usually go under performing artists, or yeah, they usually go under performing arts, which will be what you are ? a performing artist."
The "pimp" later says that he and "Kenya" plan to bring up to 13 "very young" girls from El Salvador to work as prostitutes. Although an ACORN staffer points out their plans are illegal, she also suggests that the girls can be claimed as dependents.
"What if they are going to be making money because they are performing tricks too?" the pimp says.
"If they making money and they are underage, then you shouldn't be letting anybody know anyway," the ACORN staffer says, and laughs. "It's illegal. So I am not hearing this, I am not hearing this. You talk too much. Don't give up no information you're not asked."
The "pimp" then asks ACORN staffers to "promise" not to discriminate against his sex worker because of "who she is and what she does," according to the audiotape.
"If we don't have the information, then how are we going to discriminate?" the ACORN staffer replies. "You see what I am saying?"
If the girls are under age 16, the ACORN staffer says on the tape, then they are not legally allowed to work in the state, regardless of what they do.
"So it's like they don't even exist?" "Kenya" asks.
"Exactly," the ACORN staffer replies. "It's like they don't even exist."
The staffer goes on to suggest that as many as three of the underage girls can be listed as dependents at the home, but a "flag" will be raised if as many as 13 are listed.
"You are gonna use three of them," the staffer says. "They are gonna be under 16, so you is eligible to get child tax credit and additional child tax credit."
The ACORN workers also appear to be promoting the group's services to the "pimp" and "Kenya."
A second ACORN employee can be heard on the audiotape suggesting that the couple join the organization for an annual cost of $120 prior to attending one of its first-time homebuyer seminars, which are underwritten with taxpayer funds.
Later, when the "pimp" asks what would happen if the organization is somehow connected to the scheme, the ACORN staffer replies, "First of all, it's not gonna damage us because we not gonna know. And with your girls, you tell them, 'Be careful.' Train them to keep their mouth shut."
"These girls are like 14, how can we trust them?" the pimp asks.
"Just be very, very careful," the ACORN staffer says. "Whatever you do, always keep your eyes in the back of your head."
Reached by FOX News, O'Keefe said he was "shocked" at the level of assistance provided by ACORN staffers.
"I was prepared for them to call the police, throw me out of the office and be hostile," he said. "Without hesitation, they helped me every way they could with evading taxes and setting me up with a brothel, with getting around federal tax laws ? doing everything they could to help us. I was completely shocked."
House Republicans issued a report in July accusing ACORN of engaging in a scheme to use taxpayer money to support a partisan political agenda. California Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called for a criminal investigation into the group, which dismissed the report as a "partisan attack job."
DISGUSTING!!!
Replies
74Banned
Andy, since you felt compelled to delete your post I felt it only right to delete my response.
Beach Fanatic
The video today which Glenn Beck 
showed does not have the prostitute saying she murdered people - the ACORN worker said that she murdered her husband. Sick group, sick country! I am NOT proud to be an American anymore!!!!!!!
showed does not have the prostitute saying she murdered people - the ACORN worker said that she murdered her husband. Sick group, sick country! I am NOT proud to be an American anymore!!!!!!!
SoWal Insider
Ahhh, the tough guy. It's not a question of the word you're. Whether you like it or not you and I are both part of the royal we (Lebowski rip offyou drive a pickup truck? no way!). The same royal we that has taken it upon itself to investigate our CIA, is the same royal we that will investigate the illegal government takeover of certain auto and banking companies, illegal firing of IG's and the channeling of millions into a whore house consulting firm. Only you won't like that one because your are emotionally invested in the new President's plan to have the government become a bigger part of your life. The seesaw tilts back and forth but one side has become very heavy in the recent months...writing their elected officials, calling, yelling, marching on Washington and downright screaming to be heard. If you think it was a great accomplishment that the left side of the royal we pushed government to investigate the CIA, just wait until the right side of the royal we shoves the microscope inside the current circus happening outside our windows!
On to your second point...the same people that always get worked up about Haliburton would never get worked up over Gore pushing BS global warming while owning his carbon offset company Generation Investment Management. The plan is simply to globally tax us into submission over something that hasn't been scientifically proven, only for him to bank his everloving nutz off...but what the hey it's only getting colder by the day with a continuous stream of scientists yelling that this scam is complete BS, but you can't see past the neat little green sticker on the back of your prius. Again, I'm all for protecting the environment, but you'll have to put a better scam together than that cr@p to get me to stop pulling my boat around with my truck.
Beach FanaticAuthor
The video today which Glenn Beck
Obama must be proud of his community organization!
Beach FanaticAuthor
you drive a pickup truck? no way!
your smart car would have a tough time with a couple ton trailer hanging off the bumper
Banned
your smart car would have a tough time with a couple ton trailer hanging off the bumper
Hey Bob, bet my Prius can out run your Smartcar.
Beach FanaticAuthor
Hey Bob, bet my Prius can out run your Smartcar.
I can already see the future on this one. The Kashi 500. Tiny cars doing 56 mph around a track made of recycled tires. Vegan spring rolls, wheat grass smoothies and Jeanine Garofalo saying ladies and gentlemen charge your engines!!! I fully expect to see this on tv in less than 2 years.
Banned
I can already see the future on this one. The Kashi 500. Tiny cars doing 56 mph around a track made of recycled tires. Vegan spring rolls, wheat grass smoothies and Jeanine Garofalo saying ladies and gentlemen charge your engines!!! I fully expect to see this on tv in less than 2 years.
As long as Jeanine Garofalo is not in a bikini.
Beach Fanatic
more to the story:
they show activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles posing as a pimp and a prostitute while visiting ACORN offices in Brooklyn, N.Y., Baltimore and Washington. The activists in disguise are given advice on how to falsify tax returns so they can buy a house.
"He [O'Keefe] has clearly made it a point to try and go around and expose some of the failings in ACORN operations, and he's clearly hit a nerve with these videos," NPR's Pam Fessler tells Melissa Block.
ACORN says it has fired the employees involved, and that the videos show a few bad apples at the organization.
However, Bertha Lewis, ACORN's chief organizer, says that the videos were doctored. She also said O'Keefe made similar attempts to solicit information on illegal activities at several other ACORN offices around the country, but was turned away. After O'Keefe visited ACORN's Philadelphia office, workers there called police.
Videos Put ACORN Under Pressure : NPR
they show activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles posing as a pimp and a prostitute while visiting ACORN offices in Brooklyn, N.Y., Baltimore and Washington. The activists in disguise are given advice on how to falsify tax returns so they can buy a house.
"He [O'Keefe] has clearly made it a point to try and go around and expose some of the failings in ACORN operations, and he's clearly hit a nerve with these videos," NPR's Pam Fessler tells Melissa Block.
ACORN says it has fired the employees involved, and that the videos show a few bad apples at the organization.
However, Bertha Lewis, ACORN's chief organizer, says that the videos were doctored. She also said O'Keefe made similar attempts to solicit information on illegal activities at several other ACORN offices around the country, but was turned away. After O'Keefe visited ACORN's Philadelphia office, workers there called police.
Videos Put ACORN Under Pressure : NPR
Beach Fanatic
Fox News......what a great, unbiased source!
Lets pay attention to more goofy distractions that keep us away from the real problems in the country.........
Like reprimanding Joe Wilson.
Why are your democratic heroes wasting even one second on that piece of old news that the Prez has already forgotten.
Beach Fanatic
Fox News......what a great, unbiased source!
Lets pay attention to more goofy distractions that keep us away from the real problems in the country.........
Are you implying that this did not happen?
Are you saying its okay for anyone, much less a government funded agency, to do such things?
Are you saying that lying, cheating, agreeing to aid and abet child prostitution are not real problems, etc? Wow--I didn't realize you libs were that far over the edge.
Edited
Beach Fanatic
Fisher - we must become friends!
Beach Fanatic
Sometimes Jon Stewart is really funny!
Video: The Audacity of Hos | The Daily Show | Comedy Central
"Uh, let me see...13...a hookers dozen..."
Video: The Audacity of Hos | The Daily Show | Comedy Central
"Uh, let me see...13...a hookers dozen..."
Edited
Banned
The video today which Glenn Beck
Article
...The most recent video -- from a San Bernardino ACORN office -- depicts an ACORN employee claiming to have murdered her husband. But when the Press-Enterprise newspaper caught up with ACORN employee Tresa Kaelke, she told the newspaper she was messing with the filmmakers and making it all up. "They were clearly playing with me," she said "I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me."
Reports the newspaper: "Since she claimed on the video to have killed her husband, two San Bernardino police homicide detectives interviewed her at the office Tuesday. Police said they have been in contact with Kaelke's former husbands and the homicide claims do not appear accurate.
"'At this point, we can't prove that there's anything to her statement,' said San Bernardino police Sgt. Dave Dillon. 'We can't show that ever happened.'...
Beach Fanatic
Article
...The most recent video -- from a San Bernardino ACORN office -- depicts an ACORN employee claiming to have murdered her husband. But when the Press-Enterprise newspaper caught up with ACORN employee Tresa Kaelke, she told the newspaper she was messing with the filmmakers and making it all up. "They were clearly playing with me," she said "I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me."
Reports the newspaper: "Since she claimed on the video to have killed her husband, two San Bernardino police homicide detectives interviewed her at the office Tuesday. Police said they have been in contact with Kaelke's former husbands and the homicide claims do not appear accurate.
"'At this point, we can't prove that there's anything to her statement,' said San Bernardino police Sgt. Dave Dillon. 'We can't show that ever happened.'...
Oh...so it's okay then - carry on ACORN. :roll:
Banned
Oh...so it's okay then - carry on ACORN. :roll:
How did you come to that conclusion?
Beach Fanatic
By you posting the post saying she was playing with them. You're right, Winnie. Carry on, ACORN.
Beach Lover
And it is so refreshing to know that these are the people Obama has turned to for help with the upcoming census.
State of the Union: Obama's ties to ACORN
Obama's ties to ACORN
Obama Paid ACORN $800,000 Via Their ?Front Group.? ?For starters, Obama paid ACORN, which has endorsed him for president, $800,000 to register new voters, payments his campaign failed to accurately report. (They were disguised in his FEC disclosure as payments to a front group called Citizen Services Inc. for ?advance work.?)? (Editorial, ?Is ACORN Stealing The Election?? Investor?s Business Daily, 10/8/08)
Obama Was ACORN?s Lawyer. ?The next year, 1993, Obama joined the civil-rights law firm Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland, where he sued the state of Illinois on behalf of ACORN to implement the federal ?Motor Voter? law, which the GOP governor at the time refused to do. Then-Gov. Jim Edgar argued, presciently, that the Clinton law would invite voter fraud.? (Editorial, ?Is ACORN Stealing The Election?? Investor?s Business Daily, 10/8/08)
Obama and ACORN, Fellow Travelers. ?ACORN attracted Barack Obama in his youthful community organizing days. Madeline Talbott hired him to train her staff -- the very people who would later descend on Chicago?s banks as CRA shakedown artists. The Democratic nominee later funneled money to the group through the Woods Fund, on whose board he sat, and through the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, ditto. Obama was not just sympathetic -- he was an ACORN fellow traveler.? (Mona Charen, ?ACORN, Obama, And The Mortgage Mess,? Real Clear Politics, 9/30/08)
Obama Trained ACORN Staff. ?Several community organizers and Altgeld Gardens tenants confirmed Johnson was working on asbestos but said Obama organized residents to act. ?He got people to vote with their feet? on the issue, organizer Madeleine Talbot said. At the time, Talbot worked at the social action group ACORN and initially considered Obama a competitor. But she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff.? (Letta Tayler and Keith Herbert, ?Obama Forged Path As Chicago Community Organizer,? Los Angeles Times, 3/2/08)
ACORN?s Political Action Committee Endorsed Obama. ?ACORN?s Political Action Committee, ACORN Votes, announced Feb. 21 that it had endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for President.? (ACORN, ?ACORN?s Political Action Committee Endorses Obama,? Press Release, 2/21/08)
Obama Praised ACORN For Being A Good Ally. ?When Obama met with ACORN leaders in November, he reminded them of his history with ACORN and his beginnings in Illinois as a Project Vote organizer, a nonprofit focused on voter rights and education. Senator Obama said, ?I come out of a grassroots organizing background. That?s what I did for three and half years before I went to law school. That?s the reason I moved to Chicago was to organize. So this is something that I know personally, the work you do, the importance of it. I?ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.? (Barack Obama 2008 Website, Accessed 10/8/08)
?Obama Worked As Executive Director Of ACORN?s Voter-Registration Arm, Project Vote.? ?What?s more, Obama worked as executive director of ACORN?s voter-registration arm, Project Vote, in 1992. Joined by two other community organizers on Chicago?s South Side, Obama conducted the voter-registration drive that helped elect Carol Moseley-Braun to the Senate that year.? (Editorial, ?Is ACORN Stealing The Election?? Investor?s Business Daily, 10/8/08)
These people paid no attention to any of the information that was out there during the election, and reason being their chosen media source had no desire to share the information. Even if they knew this information, still some would have voted for him anyway. Don't blame me, I voted for the war hero
I'd like for you to use appropriate quotation marks so we'll know when you are reporting something and when you are offering your opinion. Thanx in advance.
Beach FanaticAuthor
Big Government
Big Government has obtained the full text of the amendment–technically a “motion to recommit” to defund ACORN. The “Defund ACORN Act” passed the House this afternoon by an overwhelming margin of 345-75. The House vote comes just days after the Senate voted 83-7 to block ACORN from receiving federal housing grants. With these votes, 80% of the members of Congress have weighed in to block ACORN from receiving any more taxpayer dollars.
Big Government has obtained the full text of the amendment–technically a “motion to recommit” to defund ACORN. The “Defund ACORN Act” passed the House this afternoon by an overwhelming margin of 345-75. The House vote comes just days after the Senate voted 83-7 to block ACORN from receiving federal housing grants. With these votes, 80% of the members of Congress have weighed in to block ACORN from receiving any more taxpayer dollars.
Banned
By you posting the post saying she was playing with them. You're right, Winnie. Carry on, ACORN.
This is incredible but not totally surprising, you only want to hear one side of a story. If you read my post numbers 41 & 50 you will find I'm not defending ACORN. I posted the article because it was interesting and related to scooters post. It's simply amazing you both could come to such a idiotic conclusion, geez.
Beach Fanatic
This is incredible but not totally surprising, you only want to hear one side of a story. If you read my post numbers 41 & 50 you will find I'm not defending ACORN. I posted the article because it was interesting and related to scooters post. It's simply amazing you both could come to such a idiotic conclusion, geez.
Amazing.
Beach Fanatic
Beach Fanatic
New on the now-defunct ACORN:
www.ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1888&
. "One ACORN worker in San Diego called the cops. Another ACORN worker in San Bernardino caught on to the scheme and played along with it, claiming among other things that she had murdered her abusive husband. Her two former husbands are alive and well, the Attorney General's report noted. At the beginning and end of the Internet videos, O'Keefe was dressed as a 1970s Superfly pimp, but in his actual taped sessions with ACORN workers, he was dressed in a shirt and tie, presented himself as a law student, and said he planned to use the prostitution proceeds to run for Congress. He never claimed he was a pimp."
So the guy who called the cops lost his job...collateral damage I guess.
Banned
The most comical part of this story is the fact that this punk punk'd the entire Fox Noise organization.
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