ACORN dirty laundry to be aired
NOLA.com reports on internal corruption within ACORN. One million dollars embezzeled by the groups comptroller. In a group that is widely known for fraud and corruption with regaurds to voter registration, it is telling that the corruption has reached high into its own inner ranks.
The article states:
A co-worker alerted Wade Rathke, who consulted with a few of ACORN's national leaders. When the group's longtime accountants at the New Orleans firm Duplantier, Hrapmann Hogan & Maher conducted an audit and found that $948,507 had been stolen, the Rathke family set up a formal repayment schedule. Dale Rathke was removed as comptroller at CCI, but he stayed on as a consultant at ACORN.
Lewis said the 51-member board did not know about the apparent theft until an ACORN financial supporter heard about it this spring and raised questions about whether its contributions had been misappropriated.
National board members were furious at the disclosure, and they have asked for a full airing of how the money was stolen and why it was kept secret from group for so long.
Wade Rathke told board members in June that he did not try to cover up his brother's misdeeds. He asserted that he and other managers thought the repayment plan represented the best course of action because it would keep the incident out of the press, where it could provide fodder for political opponents at a time when ACORN had much work to accomplish, according to minutes of the meeting, which were available at Orleans Parish Civil District Court.