Issa Demands ACORN Fraud Probe Over OWS

November 8, 2011 By 30 Comments

The House of Representatives’ top investigator has asked a federal prosecutor to look into fraudulent fundraising practices that ACORN’s New York front group allegedly used to raise money for Occupy Wall Street.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wants to know if New York Communities for Change (NYCC) “engaged in fraud through its participation in the Occupy Wall Street protests.” (Front Page Magazine reported a month ago that NYCC was raising money for Occupy Wall Street.)

In a letter Monday Issa asked Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch to initiate an investigation into claims that NYCC may have “solicited donations from union members under false pretenses and misappropriated those funds to support the protesters.”

NYCC staffers reportedly collected money door-to-door for the group’s campaign to test schools for dangerous toxins and then commingled those funds with cash raised for a teachers union and to support Occupy Wall Street. One NYCC source was quoted saying money raised to help schools “isn’t going to the campaign … it’s just going to the protests, and that’s just so terrible.”

To cover up the funding funny business, NYCC executive director Jon Kest has reportedly threatened and fired employees, destroyed documentary evidence, ordered staffers not to speak to the media, and ordered the installation of surveillance cameras and recording devices at NYCC headquarters in Brooklyn.

NYCC is also reportedly destroying items that reference ACORN in an effort to cover up NYCC’s intimate working relationship with the ACORN network. Kest is a longtime ACORN operative. So is his brother Steve who was executive director for the national ACORN organization.

Staten Island congressman Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.) supports Issa’s call for a probe.

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Filed Under: Daily Mailer, FrontPage Tagged With: , , ,
About

Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative reporter and the author of the recently published book, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers."

  • Jim

    Acorn and allies want to get at the head of the parade but that is not what the posters whose words galvanized the public want. The posters whose years of persuasion have called for help against the Soros types and the anarchist types who want to get at the head of parade and make it theirs.

  • Jim

    If Issa can shut off the cash flow he will have done the movement a great favor. The occupiers need no take over from anti democratic organizations and have called for help.

    • Herman Caintonette

      Agreed. The primary draw of OWS is that they aren't owned by anyone. Contrast that with the takeover of the Tea Party by Dick Armey and the Koch Klux Klan, which have used the TP to advance their own provincial interests.

  • UCSPanther

    Like I said, ACORN showed its hand, and now there will be even more hell to pay thanks to its meddling.

  • alexander

    more info about one of ACORN active members: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MceFVpJ-Gyc

  • jon

    ACORN does not exist anymore. Stupid wingnuts!

    • sedoanman

      Changing the name of a horse's tail to a leg doesn't make it a leg.

    • Steve Chavez

      The KGB doesn't exist anymore either. They are now the FSB, "Same Actors, Same Script, name of the movie is different." You actually think KGB Putin is reformed?

      Same goes for all the ACORN employees. The person behind the mask is the same!

    • Moe

      and you are a stupid jack a $ $ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • jack

      "ACORN does not exist anymore. Stupid wingnuts!"

      bahahahahahahahahahaha, ignorant moron..

  • Steve Chavez

    There are so many "Help the Children" groups that are fronts for Democrat operations. Here in NM there is Voices for Children run by radicals including a man who was the head of the NM Marxist Educators for Socialist Action and the NM Peace Council, a front of the CPUSA and the Soviet KGB! He was appointed to the Department of Labor by Comrade Bill Richardson as an economic expert who the media always went to for his expertise. He also had guest speakers at his meeting that called for the "overthrow of the United States through force if necessary!"

    He then joined Voices and they have photos of helping children on their website but their true agenda is to aid in Communist and Socialist causes as he is now the head of the Democratic Socialists of New Mexico which is more dangerous as the CPUSA if that's possible! He was responsible for the "minimum wage" increase with the help of Albuquerque City Council President, Martin Heinrich, now a Congressman and running for the Senate seat of retiring Jeff Bingaman. He is surely in Congress to learn all our National Security secrets!

    There is also the Southwest Voters Registration Project, a front of ACORN, which I believe is responsible for registering my 12 YEAR OLD SON for the 2008 and 2010 elections!

  • Herman Caintonette

    Issa is abusing his power, as everyone expected that he would.

    • jacob

      On the contrary, dear Herman :

      Rep. ISSA is showing CONGRESS and all of us that he is perhaps the last
      American with what is know as COJONES, that is, BALLS, to go after these
      people, as it seems Rep. KING's investigation lost steam or was made
      perhaps an offer he coudn't refuse….

      But as the writter states, he doubts US Attorney LORETTA LYNCH willt do
      anything about, how about Rep. ISSA ordering investigate the issue by
      private investigator paid by Congress funds and then smear the results
      on OBAMA's appointee, Ms. LYNCH's face, to see whether she will perjure
      herself or take the fifth, as her boss HOLDER recently did when Rep ISSA
      grilled him on FAST AND FURIOUS…

      Time is already pasee to show these people the hard way if possible, who
      is actually boss….

      • Herman Caintonette

        When Issa goes after corruption in the courts, I will be impressed. Until then, it seems that he is using his office to facilitate political attacks.

        • tony

          I might be wrong, but I believe it is a proper function of the House of Representatives to perform oversight of the executive branch. As for corruption in the courts, would you be referring to judges who believe it is their job to create rights out of thin air? I'm all for that.

          • Herman Caintonette

            You are wrong. Impeachment is Congress's job, and Clarence Thomas has plainly committed a rash of felonies. Even a 1-L could convict.

          • Moe

            again………you are a jack a $ $ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORON !!!!

  • BS77

    What ever happened to OWS? Did it fizzle out? You hear nothing about it anymore. Must have been an illusion. Mob goes nuts and disappears.

    • Herman Caintonette

      Since when? At Fox, news is whatever Roger Ailes says it is.

      • tony

        Herman, give us one example of Fox News making things up. Just one example.

        • Moe

          crickets is all you will get from these degenerate MORONS…..as dumb as a box of rocks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • UCSPanther

      The one in Vancouver, BC. got an eviction order after 2 squatters OD'ed on drugs. One survived, the other died.

      Social problems are taking their toll, but cold weather (At least in the Great White North) appear to be starting to take their tolls as well.

      • Herman Caintonette

        Rules for Radicals. People should only engage in an activity if it remains fun, and a movement should change their strategy to reflect that. OWS will "occupy" on a more strategic basis in the future.

        • Moe

          lmfao……………..man you really are a jack a $ $ …………..you think this is a movement !!!! so do i………….and it's called a BOWEL movement….. IDIOT !!!!

  • BS77

    Acorn, OWS….what a steaming pile.

  • howdydoody

    Now FOX News is wasting American taxpayer money pursuing this even further. FOX and Murdoch — the man who allowed his staff to hack into the private lives of people all over the world — have enlisted Wall Street's chief political benefactor, biggest defender and multi-millionaire, Republican hatchet man Darrell Issa – to further the network's One percent political agenda. – Issa, who famously declared that he wanted to hold a hearing a week for forty weeks when he took over the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has largely come up empty and is now scraping the bottom of the barrel, wasting Americans taxpayer money chasing baseless rumors fed to him by Rupert Murdoch. It's unfortunate but we expect nothing less from Issa, Murdoch and FOX.

    • Herman Caintonette

      Yep. He OWNS Issa, who has left a trail of excreta behind him sufficient to fill in the Red Sea.

  • tanstaafl

    The best way to explain the transformation of ACORN is by using a pea and three walnut shells.

  • WilliamJamesWard

    ACORN, corruption, Obama, leftist activists, confusion and theft, where oh where
    have the billions gone? What has happened to America's money, who has been
    keeping tabs, are the tax payers forever screwed and our society doomed by
    theft in high and low places…………we should all know soon enough……William

  • Moe

    you are full of chyt……….phuk off jack a $ $ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!