ACORN’s Dilemma and Ours
Quick, what’s the difference between Triantafilitsa Mattfeld and Dale Rathke?
Both were caught embezzling money from their nonprofit organizations, Mattfeld $180,000 from the Navy Elementary School PTA in Fairfax County, Virginia, Rathke exactly $948,607.50 while he was handling the books for ACORN, the nation’s premier community-based organizing and advocacy network founded by his brother Wade Rathke who also served until June as ACORN’s Chief Organizer.
Both reached agreements with their organizations to make some sort of financial restitution, Mattfeld pledging $75,000 after having put an additional $80,000 back into the PTA’s accounts in the previous five years, Rathke’s family making $30,000 a year payments since 2001, for a total of $210,000 according to the New York Times with an anonymous donor pledging to pay the remaining balance.
The differences are more than how much they pilfered and how much they or their families and supporters are pledged to repay.
Characterized in court as “morbidly obese,” dependent on a breathing machine, and suffering from heart problems and chronic asthma, Mattfeld was sentenced to a year in jail for her financial perfidy (though because of her health she’ll probably serve her time in home detention with electronic monitoring). In the press to date, it appears that Dale Rathke is facing no legal action whatsoever.
Besides his ACORN-related duties, Dale Rathke is sometimes found in the society pages of New Orleans newspapers participating in cultural and fundraising events. Whether or not the embarrassment of publicity compels Rathke to scale back his extracurricular activities is unknown. Mattfeld on the other hand has not been a fixture in the society pages of the Washington Post or the Fairfax County Times, and it’s not hard to guess that she won’t be in the future wearing her new police-supplied ankle bracelet.
There are other differences. Mattfeld was an unpaid volunteer at the PTA. Rathke was an employee, paid “about” $38,000 a year for his job with ACORN (not including what else he might have earned as salary from Citizens Consulting, the accounting and bookkeeping services firm, co-located with ACORN, where Rathke worked) until he was terminated this year, a decade after the embezzlement.
In Fairfax County, 400 parents and community members signed a petition asking the judge to impose “substantial punishment” on Mattfeld for plundering the local PTA accounts.
Although Rathke’s perfidy was known to a group of insiders in ACORN who agreed to the restitution plan, ACORN’s 400,000 member families in 1,200 ACORN chapters were apparently unaware of what went on and apparently did not have an opportunity to demand or ask for legal action against him. The official statement on the ACORN website soft-pedals Rathke’s crime with the euphemism “misappropriated” rather than “embezzled” or “stole.”
One more difference. The court noted what the PTA might have been able to accomplish had Mattfeld not stolen the money: field trips, books, special instructors, playground equipment, computers for the kids at the school. Mattfeld told PTA members that the organization was financially strapped and unable to pay for these things during the five years she filched the money.
The press coverage suggests that Rathke’s thievery was discovered a decade ago, but there is no information so far that reveals just how long it took him to steal $1 million (through credit card expenditures and the like) and what programs and activities ACORN had to forego during that time.
Rathke’s hometown paper, the Times-Picayune, appears to have ignored the New York Times coverage of this story to date. For Triantafilitsa Mattfeld, the Washington Post’s metro section story gave details of her conviction plus her mugshot supplied by the Fairfax County Police. .
These are tragic stories. One can only imagine the torment of ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke that his own brother ripped off his organization. For a decade or so, they lived with the secret and suppressed the information within ACORN to all but a few insiders, protecting him and the organization from the critical scrutiny that will now ensue. The public statement on the ACORN website from ACORN president Maude Hurd announcing Wade Rathke’s resignation as ACORN’s Chief Organizer (though not from ACORN International) includes no statement from Dale Rathke apologizing as he should to the ACORN membership for his actions.
Mattfeld’s statement to the court, ostensibly apologizing to her family and the community, somehow failed to acknowledge that she actually stole the nonprofit’s money. In her warped sense of things, she concocted an explanation that she had been trying to “fix” the PTA finances by somehow moving money in and out of her own personal bank accounts. Just like ACORN where a few insiders “knew” about the Dale Rathke events, it is hard to believe that Mattfeld’s family and maybe even some other officers of the PTA were completely unaware that their access to tens of thousands of dollars didn’t come from her control of the PTA’s books.
In both cases, the malefactors had enablers who appear to have looked the other way or covered up. Enabling behavior rarely if ever helps the wrongdoers come to terms with their offenses to family, community, and colleagues.
ACORN’s efforts to tighten up its financial controls to prevent future Dale Rathke repeats is late, but necessary and appropriate. The Rathke imbroglio does not mean that politically progressive advocacy organizations need to be “squeaky clean,” meeting a higher standard of ethical behavior than other nonprofit or for-profit organizations, as some commentators have implied. Fundamentally, the advocacy-oriented national ACORN and service-focused local PTAs have to be clean, that’s it. Stealing tax exempt funds that might have gone for school supplies from the PTA or mortgage counseling or voter registration delivered by ACORN, it doesn’t matter, it’s simply and thoroughly wrong.
More than 25 years ago, I was street organizer for ACORN. I joined the group after several years of doing community organizing because ACORN seemed to have an idea about funding itself, rather than relying on fickle foundations that will always find new (and worthy) causes to fund. To be honest, I stunk at this, but I still believe that you have to have community support, not just grants.
My take on this is that it is another case of founder’s symdrome. Wade Rathke was able provide his own solution to his brother’s actions, because the ACORN board was not in charge, but rather in thrall. Unfortunately, this can happen anywhere.
The timing of this is unfortunate–ACORN, as an organization that got its start in Arkansas, was supporting the Clinton campaign. Their impact in this crucial presidential could be vital, if the news of this isn’t very discouraging to its leaders, members, and staff.
There is often a sense of entitlement that leads for-profit board members and others to inappropriately use funds. For non-profits it is often a neglect of fiduciary responsibilities by those charged with supervising and safeguarding funds that leads to inappropriate handling of funds. I have seen it too many times, both theft of funds as well as neglect of duty.
For non=profits I think there is often a sense of shared values and assumed common ethical standards that results in the fox run amok in the hen house. However just as bad as the culprit are those complicit.
Honestly, I worked for ACORN and got to see how the people at the very top were paid well, while regular staff survived on $25,000 a year. It is sad to see the truth exposed, but ACORN claims to represent the poor, but its leadership does not reflect the community it serves. And with over 13 different organizations under the ACORN umbrella, (some of them C3) I personally saw a lot of money being solicited from foundations and used for c4 work. The chickens have come home to roost.
Dear Tina: You’re pointing out another dimension I will address in an upcoming article, which is the challenge of tracking the money in complex, multi-faceted, multi-chaptered, multi-affiliated organizations like ACORN. For example, given that Dale Rathke actually worked for a for-profit firm co-housed with ACORN (Citizens Consulting, though Dale’s email address was “@acorn.org”), which did work for ACORN affiliates, for the SEIU, and for other organizations, I really don’t know at this moment how much Dale Rathke was paid in terms of salary beyond the $38k acknowledged by ACORN. Sometimes, the multilayered organizational complexity you’re describing becomes an administrative and financial horror show, even with the best of intentions. I will be following up with more research on this. Thanks for commenting.
Rick Cohen
Hey, Woullard, nice to know you’re a reader of CR (and other NPQ stuff). What are you doing now? I agree with your point about entitlement, but what I’m also concerned about (re funders) is the fact that funders seem to have turned a blind eye to this. Most foundations I know routinely ask for audits and claim to do due diligence. I know in organizations I’ve worked for, I’ve had foundations go through my organizational audits asking probing questions about the organization’s financial practices and short and long term solvency. I’m curious what happened on the foundation side of this story where there might have been issues amok that the foundations should have known and either didn’t or they simply ignored it. Stay in touch, Woullard, be well.
Rick Cohen
Dear Mike: I thought about the founder syndrome too. I’ve experienced the founder dynamic in my time, and you’re right, boards do tend to defer to the founder. But your key point is on target, this could happen anywhere. The Quarterly published some time ago a great article by Deb Linnell on founders (”and other gods”) which is well worth a reread. Thanks for checking in.
Rick Cohen
Rick – I agree with everything you say, but I think you’re missing another ACORN constituency that deserves an apology and some accountability – the board of directors. We continually hear the mantra of “fiduciary accountability” of boards and how they must take their role seriously, etc, etc. This board was apparently blindsided by the news of this embezzlement and cover up. Will any of them ever agree to serve on a nonprofit board again?
Thank you your insightful and in my opinion rather calm analysis of the situation at ACORN.
I am a former Head Organizer of ACORN. I have some thoughts I would like to share on these matters. The main thrust of my point here is that ACORN unfortunately and according to people on the inside, cannot get rid of Rathke and feel as if they are merely rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic. The Captian moved to another seat but he is still on deck. Let me flush this out a little bit.
The basic premise is this, Wade is now head of World ACORN! A promotion. He keeps his office at Elysian Fields and the only person who is probably really gone is Dale. The staff who went along with the coverup are still (most) there. The way this went down how do we know Wade and Dale did not conspire to steal the money? Why aren’t they being indicted? Most importantly, Wade Rathke’s organizing from Chief Organizer down to the members instead of the other way around must also be addressed or ACORN’s habitual systems will lend themselves to the same conclusion.
Wade is not letting go of ACORN in the least. This is a lie and everyone at ACORN knows it. In fact, they are at a loss for what to do about it. Lets get some facts out before I continue.
A part of this story many may have missed is so crucial.
1) Rathke is staying in ACORN as Chief Organizer of “ACORN International” his contact info from ACORN International’s website?
Contact Wade Rathke
Wade Rathke
1024 Elysian Fields Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70117
(504) 943-0044
Now hope you will see what I see here:
Notice anything interesting about this?
SEIU 100 in New Orleans
1024 Elysian Fields Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70117
504-872-0480 ext 118
504-617-6045 FAX
Now here is the address for Citizens Consulting Inc: This was Dale’s for profit accounting and lobbying firm
1024 Elysian Fields Ave
New Orleans, LA , 70117-8402
Now Here is the address of ACORN National in New Orelans (Wade’s offie)
ACORN National Louisiana
1024 Elysian Fields Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70117
chieforg@acorn.org
Phone: 504-943-0044
ACORN Housing Corp
1024 Elysian Fields Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70117
Phone: (504) 301-3112
Fax: (504) 218-7176
And his ACORN international office is in the same building.
Now the office ACORN members report to in New Orleans have as a resource is craftily at another site.
Still feel the winds of change blowing through ACORN?
It is fascinating to watch the transition. Wade started organizing a seperate entity with a seperate board with him as Chief Organizer shortly after people in ACORN (staff) became aware of the embezzlement. What a coincidence? Wow, wonder how hard it would be to extradite him from Argentina or India on embezzlement charges?
ACORN International is in place and Wade hasn’t missed a beat and he talked one of his rich friends into donating the 800,000 that hasn’t been paid by Dale. SO heck they can split the 800 grand and walk around like they own the joint?
So International ACORN is not part of ACORN? It is part of the ACORN famly but seprerated by Wade’s maze of legal firewalls.
Just as the American Institue FOr Justice and the ACORN Institute are seperate from ACORN but it is an intrinsic part of ACORN’s funding and structure giving them 501c3 coverage.
Where did the start up capital come from?
We know where it came from.
ACORN International reports at Head Organzer and Management meetings.
They come the Year Year Beginning yealry meetings.
Why is that if they are a seperate Organization?
Now this is a website I just went and what do you call this?
http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=2683
Now on this Acorn.org website I found this?
International Offices
ACORN International is building community organizations of low-income families, and partnering with grassroots organizations outside of the United States. ACORN International aims to strengthen democratic movements for social change, as well as build connections between community-based organizations across borders and cultures.
ACORN International has offices in Argentina, Canada, Peru, and Mexico, and facilitates the India FDI Watch Campaign. We are establishing direct membership chapters in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Kenya, and Nigeria and are exploring partnerships with established membership-based organizations in Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea.
> ACORN Argentina
> ACORN Peru
> ACORN Dominican Republic
> ACORN Canada
> ACORN Mexico
Now what is that. I searched the site and found that.
Now when I go to this site, the offices link? I find this
http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=2593
Now on this site the US offices, the national, and the international! I don’t know if you know it or not but that is pissing alot of people off. Especially since this is linked as well:
So Sorry, we ACORNISTAS aren’t buying it. Also why am I able to reach Wade’s Chief Organizer page form the ACORN page?
Either he is gone or not. If ACORN is a out control freight train that has already left the station. Then USA ACORN will sue them for all resources drained from our members and will demand they change their name!
Wade’s dream of a Walmart of Organizing is coming true on our sweat and dimes. Whether the members and staff like it or not.
Avery important read on ACORN will give us much insight into the problems at ACORN now. Gary Delgado’s “Organizing the Movement The Roots and Growth of ACORN”
Delgado spent 14 years from the beginning with ACORN. The analysis then was the same today.
His analysis that ACORN was structured so that an elite group of white folks would be the only people that could manage ACORN and that they acted upon Rathke’s and not the member’s orders meant that ACORN would be a toip down operation.
As a person of color. A former ACORN staff member, and as a radical, and in light recent revelations of Wade Rathke’s coverup of the theft of 1,000,000USD I just gotta say amen. Wade doesn’t allow dissent within ACORN.
Here is what I can tell you, you gotta read Gery DelGado’s ACORN: Growing the movement. DelGado, a founding organizer pushed out by Rathke detailed almost 30 years ago that ACORN had an all white management staff. Until Wade was pushed out of Chief Organizer USA by the board this month? Now Bertha Lewis is heading up the management team to clean up the mess?
Wade pushes her under the bus and into the drivers seat as it is teetering on the edge of a cliff? I have not published my real name and I hope you can appreciate why. I am just a lowly organizer who can be easily smashed by Wade’s long arms in the Democratic party.
The kicker for me is that in light of Wade’s racism towards CLU (Great Article about this http://hungryblues.net/2005/10/23/white-labor-leader-wade-rathke-attacks-black-led-cluphf/ ), the embezzlement of 1,000,00 and in my opinion more importantly the horrible treatment of ACORN staff who were from the working class? He is getting promoted to Chief Organizer of ACORN International? Chief Organizer of the World? Are people in LA going to stomach that?
I remember once at a staff of color caucus there were maybe 150 of us in a room. Bertha Lewis asked all staff who had been there over 5 years to stand. Only two people were standing. Then she asked everyone there over two years to stand and literally like 10 stood up. They then asked everyone over a year to stand and maybe 20 stood. The other 115 stood. I remember the resistance the management staff had to us even having a staff of color caucus and remember hovering outside the door nonchalantly. We all resolved to call Wade and others out on several issues. Wade never even acknowledged our resolve.
There are good people at ACORN. Unfortunately they are overshadowed by things like office riots when people who haven’t been paid in over a month from poor communities explode. They are overshadowed by staff directives that do not allow for true community organizing. The way it is set up working class staff can’t hang with the 60 to 100 hour weeks, the low mileage stipend, the ridiculous fund raising goals set etc..
If you have a kid? And you weren’t born from money you can forget about working for ACORN. The Democratic party and Unions are helping to feed this beast. The outsourcing to ACORN for low wage campaign workers at 7-8 bucks an hour to do VR and GOTV with no minimum standards that workers get paid the Living Wage ACORN has out fighting for? This just feeds the beast. PIRG is doing it, Move on does it and so do others. The only poeple who survive between campaigns are North East liberals from often times Ivy League or private liberal colleges that are using ACORN as a resume stuffer in their climb up the ladder to be an Exec Dir or Dem party operative. What about all those people from black, Latino and other communities of color that really could have excelled at ACORN had they been paid a living wage.
When I read the letter circulated about Community Labor Union by Wade Ratke shortly after the unrest that was a result of CLU organized actions in New Orleans by people of color. When I saw that Wade said “these people couldn’t organize a two car funeral”? HE compared them to the CIA mole Chalabi who falsely claimed to represent the Iraqi people (are we a little over the top Wade?). I couldn’t believe the white chauvinism that dripped from this hypocrite. DelGado has it right. A change has to come about in community organizing. Where people form directly affected communities control the work. It has to happen. This was the Ratke I knew, brow beating, condescending, demeaning, and yes racist. As if he deserved to talk to organizers of color (who had comparable experience) in the way that he did simply because he helped some black folks. Or becuase he had read some Alinsky. There was no excuse for the way he treated his staf.
Working for ACORN and watching some of the white folks in the field made me feel like we were putting poor communities in a skinner box to see how they would react if we gave this toy or that stimulus etc.. Or worse like some zoologist trying to get close to a lion or monkey in the jungle and acting proud if they were able to sit and eat with the animals. I am serious that is how it felt.
I hope the people of New Orleans LA take this opportunity to force ACORN to reverse the methods, tactics, and employment policies of ACORN. Save that other 115 organizers out there from souring on organizing for ever.
Also, SEIU you need to tell ACORN they have to pay a living wage or they can’t do SEIU work. Yes SEIU outsourced work to us often, if the Dems, SEIU, or any other progressive group is going to outsource any of their work to anyone. This business of not getting a contract that ensures the workers will be treated fairly has to stop. I have video I have never released of employees rioting in offices who were not paid for over a month. How embarrassing for them, for me, for the movement.
When I found out about the million? I wasn’t even one bit surprised. I have personally seen that much money thrown out the window on nothing in a week at ACORN. By the way, if you leave ACORN the standard line is “F—k them, they left”, you have to secretly leave. It is like a cult. If you do good you can’t get a reference, your supervisor will hint that you are a problem worker. I know it. It is hard to re-enter the field of organizing because you are burned out and you are white listed by ACORN.
The real problem now is changing the systems Wade put in place that allow for disempowerment of members, a failure to build minority leadership, and for he and his brother to steal from the people.
Kate,
I don’t know if the Board deserves an apology or ought to be issuing one. I made the ‘fiduciary accountability’ comment regarding the board’s role in this and other instances of financial excess in non-profit groups. If we can’t point to the board and ask them to hold the line where can the responsibility lie? As important or maybe even more important that the board being deceived initially is its response or lack of one to the problem once it came to light. It is often difficult to chastise those who you have labored in the trenches with shoulder to shoulder. But if not the Board demanding accountability from the staff whose job is it and what is the Board’s role?
As organization’s grow and become financially complex it becomes increasingly difficult to do a ’shirt sleeve analysis’ of the finances. So a few sharks might slip through the net. It happens. The test is what is done by the Board once it becomes aware.
Well personally, if what we are being told is true The Staff caught this problem and shared it with one Board member, Maude Hurde who agreed after being talked into it by the management team into keeping it quiet.
As far as more fiduciary oversight? Wade organized his board to be a board that acted on his recommendations from day one. It is interesting how for years we were told to tell people “4 african American women from Little Rock Arkansas founded ACORN”.
Today Wade has finally owned up to the truth, he a white, wealthy, upperclass, hack went to Arkansas and after his friend George Wiley passed on proceeded to found, shape, and design ACORN to serve him. He brags that he founded ACORN today. Well guess what? The reputable true grassroots orgs I know of were indigenous developments that were started by residents of directly affected communities. They weren’t founded by some carpet bagger that picked a spot on a map and said I think I will organize this community to build a non-profit. As sad and prophetic as it it might be of what came to pass over 38 years, the modus operandi never changed.
My first drive went down like this. I was told to pick a block of 1000 households and go there and begin recruiting members who would work with me to organize an ACORN chapter. They had never heard of ACORN and they never got a chance to hire me. They had no say in who or how the drive would be structured because Wade designed the drive to be a certain way over a 10-12 week period. THe members would have 4 organizing committee meetings. If the members wanted to have six I was told by my supervisor to cut it off at four. To organize the “members” to want to do it in 4 or 5 tops. I was told to get them to identify an issue that was winnable and small. When they wanted to go for something that was a systemic big issue I was told to get them to do something like a speed bump or a stop sign. Then I was told they would do a big meeting and then they had to do an action. Regardless of how they felt about it. Regardless of what was going on inthe community. I was told to have the officers identified before they were elected so even though at the big meeting elections were called for, it was really to be an acceptance of predetermined outcomes. This is the big rub abd it has everything to do with why the board did not have oversight. ACORN has always been about predetermined outcomes. Go and read Gary Delgados book about ACORN. It was that way when he left and it is that way now. How can that be considered a member run organization. It isn’t it never was. Iwas organizing a year before my mmembers were asked if they wanted to hire me.. That is a little ridiculous. I organized them for a year and then asked the bord to hire me? Seems like I was hired whether they liked it or not.
john: The basic organizing model hasn’t really changed since my time with ACORN. However, aside from the timeframes, much of this model goes back to Paolo Friere and his Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The size of the community and the discussion of issues is right in line with Friere’s idea of motivating people to action. The idea of a winnable issue is still not a bad way to start any organization. But enough community organizing sidetracking.
It is the running of the organization itself that is really under water. ACORN National Board members should be setting the policy and evaluating the work and determing their course. It looks like the Board was ignored and now the organization is discredited because these people were asleep at the switch.As the earlier comment noted, Rathke is not really gone–just living on another branch of the tree.
The size and discussion are not as important as to what the members want and the role organizers are directed to manipulate people to the issues the organizer wants the community to work on. That is a problem. The point isn’t to say critisize speedbumps as a winnable issue. The point is that it is not the organizers role to manipulate or tell members what to do.
I don’t accept anyone not Alinsky or Paolo Friere as infallible and I don’t believe all communities present themselves to any one model.
The most important thing as Delgado points out and rightfully so. To say “this is the correct model” while the model fails to produce strong leaders, and for 38 years by default ends up being an all white upper management team is a tragedy that only upper class white people would be comfortable making excuses for. It isn’t working, it hasn’t worked. It has produced a board that is disconnected from decision making, has zero transparency, but worse creates a board that didn’t even know anything was wrong.
In the end the ACORN organizing regimine by definition pushes poor folks with children away from aby possible chance of becoming a serious organizer. I refer to our experiment. Why are there so few directly affected people that are able to last more than two teares at ACORN.
for Kate and Woullard, I think I agree with parts of what both of you had to say. I can’t tell you how much of the content of NPQ-the-magazine deals with the role of the board of directors and how frequently the issues concern whether the board members really know their roles, whether the staff leadership helps the board implement is fiduciary responsibilities, and more. In this instance, there are questions to be asked about what the board (or boards, given ACORN affiliates) knew, when the board(s) knew, whether the information was shared among the board members or only to a small inner circle, and whether the board appreciated fully what was at stake in this imbroglio.
for john, i don’t really know that Maude Hurd was the only board member who knew about the Dale Rathke “misappropriation”. your postings have raised a number of questions that might be pursued, basically around who knew what when, and how is
ACORN (writ large) now addressing the issues. Simply putting Bertha Lewis into the new management team isn’t the solution, though it doesn’t mean that Bertha has been thrown under the bus (having seen Bertha in operation, it’s kind of hard to imagine that she would take a position that would lead to being stenciled with the treadmarks of bus tires). what’s clear to me from your postings here (and from the postings of other former ACORN people on other blogs) is that there are a lot of very strong feelings about the organization and its leadership. You can be assured that NPQ is going to watch ACORN’s next actions very very closely to see just how it addresses the ramifications of the Dale Rathke incident and tries to recover from the organizational and reputational damage that it has suffered.
for john and mike, I’m an old Freirean myself, having put Pedagogy of the Oppressed under my pillow throughout my youth. but there’s no magic in an organizing theory that protects an organization from people who might choose to simply abuse the trust of their members, constituents, communities, and funders. No one was or is infallible, not even Paolo Freire, but in particular, no organization should consider itself immune from critical questioning of its management practices, financial controls, and, as you both infer, its politics. I recall the issue between Wade Rathke and Curtis Mohammed regarding post-Katrina organizing in New Orleans. I think Wade’s comments were expressed in his personal blog, many people reacted quite sharply against his sentiments, and I recall Wade having issued an apology, I may be wrong, but I thought that he and some people (perhaps Curtis) from the CLU even met. What’s also interesting in your comments are questions about the ACORN organizing model, re the hiring and compensation of organizers, the workloads of organizers, etc. That’s a great subject for NPQ-the-magazine to address at some point, as well as here in the commentary to the Cohen Report. Consider that topic now on the NPQ agenda.
and for everyone, we’ve received so many responses online and offline to this brief article, please count on NPQ and the Cohen Report watching and writing about what happens next with ACORN. And if you think there are questions that we should pursue–questions that address the core issue that the Cohen Report addresses, which is nonprofit (and philanthropic) accountability–pass them along. Thank you all.
Refreshing, Thanks
This is all bad, but let’s not confuse ACORN with a 501c3. ACORN is a private, not-for-profit corporation with no special tax status. This doesn’t change any of the relevant facts or criticisms — but let’s not confuse ACORN’s board with a c3 board or its finances with c3 finances.
Dear Kiki: That’s correct, ACORN itself is a nonprofit corporation, but not a (c)(3). However, in the mix are affiliates and subsidiaries that include (c)(3)s and (c)(4)s among other corporate forms. But the issues that ACORN is now grappling with are in many ways core issues of board roles, board/staff relations, financial controls, and so forth. I suspect that much of what ACORN is now trying to accomplish in recovering from this incident will look a lot like what a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and board would address when confronted with serious weaknesses in basic issues of management and governance. Thanks for writing.
I had to comment on this comment from above:
“ACORN claims to represent the poor, but its leadership does not reflect the community it serves”
Are there any organizations that have leadership that is representative of who they serve? This is the impression I have from my experiences in the non-profit world over the last 10 years:
Board members are volunteers that are usually from the corporate sector but sometimes from the public sector (county administrator, police representatives, etc). Those who can financially contribute to the board are sought out for board membership, which makes sense when foundations like to see 100% of the board giving. If a board member has more disposable income though they might be able to give more so seeking out more wealthy members is important. The well connected board members know that the organizational leaders need to raise money for the organization so they seek out those who are also well connected to fill those top positions.
Everything is controlled by money and the same rich old white guys who are controlling the corporations.
Dear Imperfectly: i certainly understand your point about nonprofit boards, but my impression is that the national ACORN board is not a board of corporate and other more affluent people, but a board drawn from local ACORN affiliates, which too are not board-governed by the affluent and privileged, but broadly representative of their communities. there may be other dimensions of this issue that warrant concern, such as how community residents who are local organizers, working the usual organizers’ jobs and hours and serving on local ACORN boards, can also successfully find the time and get the technical support they need to manage a wide-ranging and complex national operation like ACORN. Don’t take this to mean that I think that boards have to be stocked with experts. I’ve seen plenty of organizations tank with boards whose members seem to be exactly the most expert people the organization could have wanted, and they tank anyhow, and I’ve seen organizations that have been in big trouble, but it was local community board members whose diligence and hard work pulled them out of trouble. So while your point is well taken, I don’t think (am I incorrect?) that your description of nonprofit boards mismatched with the people they serve accurately characterizes ACORN’s situation.
When I say leadership I mean the management staff. The ACORN board Wade has so carefully constructed and kept Maude in control of for 18 years does what it is told by the staff.
That is definitely verified. I don’t see how anyone could miss that.
Furthermore, Management go out of their way to instruct Head Organizers to look for poeple who are going to “go along” with the National strategy without much conversation.
Wade and the management staff made a decision to keep it quiet. The whole board was never asked. I have that from umteen sources.
Dear John and everyone who has responded so far: Thank you all so much for keeping this dialogue going. John, I think you’re pointing out issues that Nonprofit Quarterly has been raising for years. In general, you’ve identified several: (1) How do some NP staff leaders undermine rather than facilitate the ability of a nonprofit board to do its work re governance and due diligence? (2) how do board members (who are on other boards, some of which presumably functioning well) manage to not do what they obviously should do regarding their roles of oversight and governance? (3) what is the responsibility of the board chair in this staff/board dynamic, and how culpable should the board chair be when the dynamic dysfunctions? (4) What are the built-in flaws when senior staff (or, more simply, NP CEOs) select board members for their willingness to get along and go along, for the likelihood that they won’t challenge the executive director? As the press has reported the incident, it is clear that the whole board was not informed of the decision regarding disclosure of Dale Rathke’s actions. It is unclear to me how much of the board beyond Maude Hurd was even informed. And I would ask the substantive question, what exactly were those who were told told? And if someone was charged with–and admitted (as part of a restitution scheme)–embezzlement, why was the person kept on staff after the incident? So I’d add a fifth question: (5) when a NP discovers and verifies a theft of this sort, what should it do? I’m hoping that NPQ’s “Ethicist” columnist takes on that question. I was a relatively senior employee in another organization in which a financial guy purloined roughly the same amount of money. I know he was charged and I think, if I recall correctly (it was after my time that the discovery was made), he and another staff member were fired (it is rare that a big theft is known only to one person; it usually takes more). I’ll ask our ethicist to weigh in. Thanks for raising such tough and on-point questions. Now, if we can find some answers…
Didn’t the organizations have an auditor with professional responsibilities to inform the Boards?
What entities were credited when the loss was recorded as a receivable by Citizens Consulting Inc.?
Did the collection of the restitution money get returned to the proper entities?
Dear John: Not being an accountant, but having directed nonprofits that had accounting firms on contract for our regular finances and other firms for our annual audits, I can’t tell you what the auditors might or might not have told the ACORN people about how to deal with the financial “misappropriation” and the recording of the theft as a loan. I had never heard of that. But it raises questions of what accountants and auditors tell their clients, including larger ones, in order to stay in their good graces. I once did a review of a CDC in Indianapolis that was a financial mess and eventually collapsed–but until that point, it’s accountants (one of the big national firms) had given them a clean bill of financial health. In cases like that one and perhaps ACORN’s, there is a question here about how secure we can feel about (some) accountants and auditors. One observer compared ACORN to Enron, saying that ACORN’s financial problems didn’t compare one iota to Enron’s. But one aspect of Enron’s to note is that it was the auditors and accountants who willy-nilly signed off on Enron’s financial shenanigans, and the resulting Sarbanes-Oxley legislation took square aim at the accounting firms that had given Enron the green light with things like Enron’s weird interpretation of “mark to market”, etc. RE the return of the funds to their entities, I would hope that ACORN has been talking to its funders–or its funders have been talking to ACORN–to ensure that the functions and programs they supported, even if only grants to ACORN’s general operations, are carried out as intended. Thanks for the continuing questions and pointers.
CCI the company that Dale Rathke oversaw was the financial afministrative wing of ACORN. Dale was in charge of the books. In charge of when audits were done etc…
IF you wanted reimbursement or to be paid for anything your request went thgrough CCI. THere are many in ACORN who think the whole thing with the embezzlement started long before 2001. That was the time he/they got caught.
Dear John: I am presuming that someplace within the ACORN structure, there were outside accountants and outside auditors, if only because there were federal grants and some private grantmakers that might have required (or wanted to see) the reports of auditors. Dale Rathke’s role at CCI, as this column and other articles have detailed, put him in charge of the financial administration functions carried out by (or at) CCI. My comment above is not what kind of standards Dale Rathke might have understood and pursued (or spurned), but what was said, either before or after the financial “misappropriation”, by the outside accountants and outside auditors. Assume (undoubtedly correctly) that it took Dale Rathke some period of time to misappropriate the million dollars, since it wasn’t done in one fell swoop. In my experience, there are usually discernable clues to financial improprieties that sharp-eyed reviewers of the books might catch (if they’re looking), either through overseeing the books on an ongoing basis, or in audits. That’s why I’m curious about what the outside accountants and auditors saw and knew. This might be a situation where the AICPA might look into judgments made and advice given by its members, assuming ACORN used AICPA-certified accounting firms. Interesting to say the least.
Dear Rick: I was the only CPA for ACORN from inception until 1995. Since reading your report and comments I have become confident of your good intentions. Therefore I have decided to open up with regard to any questions that you or your subscribers may have.
Yes, it is quite possible that the “misappropriations” go back before my retirement. So I have great sympathy for Wade’s torment. Even before 2001. Wade knew before I left that Dale had total domination of accounting and banking functions of all the 50-75 separate corporate entities. Each corporation had a bank account at Whitney. Dale got a consolidated daily bank statement that gave him the debit or credit balance of each account and net total. Dale was a check signer on every account. Wade was not. That’s about all anyone knew after their only competent bookkeeper resigned about 1988. Accounting decended into chaos and I was in a constant helpless depression after that until 1995. Hearsay from a former insider informed me in 2001 that Dale got caught making $1 million improper payments to American Express but they would recover from his inheritance some day and my successor auditors were all over it. I thought, thank God, not on my watch. I perked up but held my tongue.
After thinking it over, I think I agree with the cover up strategy in 2001. I guess I participated in it by remaining silent. I believe that it’s the only way ultmate restitution was probable at the time. But I remain curious. Why shouldn’t restitution be made for the $38,000 per annum paid Dale since 2001? Surely the firing would have taken place in 2001 except for the cover up.
I should confine my comments to the situation as I knew it prior to 1995. I defer all other questions as to subsequent events and transactions to my successors who were emminently qualified and informed of all problems that needed attention after my departure. I believe that they know every thing that is significant about this matter. I wish they would get permission to publish a case study on this matter. I have had no communications with them since 1995.
Somebody said “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
Did you see the newest story in the NY TImes stating that Drummond Pike was the person who bailed the Rathke’s out and that more whistle blowers brought the info forward? I told more would be coming.
The reason that no one caught on is that the auditors were dirty. A formee employee who has been there over 10 years mentioned that while the funders love her and want to help, they can not because everyone knows that the audits are fakes. ACORN refuses to hire an independent firm to go over the books, and with good reason, a lot of money has gone missing from other sources over the years. Dale is just the tip of the iceberg.
I was wondering the ethics of having Wade Rathke on the Tides Board when
Wade’s affiliate organization, Project Vote, receives millions from Tides
every year. Isn’t this a conflict of interest? I want to say that there must
be some type of law or rule that prevents this, so I wanted to check with
you. Tides Foundation or one of the other Tides entities is one of the
largest funders of Project Vote. Project Vote then takes this money and
“contracts” ACORN to do voter registration work. It seems like Wade’s
dishonesty knows no bounds.
Dear James; I’m not a lawyer, so I won’t weigh in on the legality of the question you raise. I’ll simply note a couple of things: I’ve long been troubled by grantmakers making grants to organizations whose directors or senior staff sit on the grantmakers’ boards of directors. Even with the best of intentions, people can and do raise questions about the perception of conflicts of interest, and I have done so in other circumstances. For my past job, I wrote a very strict conflict of interest policy (and a very strict anti-nepotism policy) because I think these situations can often be fraught with problems. Typically, a board member who has a such a conflict would recuse himself or herself from the discussion and decision-making regarding the grant, but I have often found that a little artificial, because the board members of the grantmaker certainly know the reason for the recusal and tend to be unlikely to raise questions about the grant simply because of a perceived conflict. In all fairness to Tides and Rathke, they constitute only one of many many examples of grantmakers with grantees represented on the board of directors. Regarding PV contracting with ACORN, without knowing the specifics, I know that there are plenty of 501(c)(3) organizations that contract for services with related 501(c)(4)s, other kinds of nonprofits, etc. that might be related, and this has raised questions in some quarters. There was a very interesting study from the Campaign Finance Institute at http://www.cfinst.org/books_reports/pdf/NonprofitsWorkingPaper.pdf that raised questions about these dynamics, the report got some immediate attention and then I didn’t see much follow-up, but you’ll see some shortly in some upcoming issues of this newsletter. Thanks for raising all of these important questions. You’ll see us discussing them in depth soon in these pages and perhaps elsewhere.
Dear John (I have so many comments to respond to, I’m a little out of order; this is in response to your note of 8/19 at 3;45 am): Yes, I saw the NY Times piece about Drummond Pike. Just so readers are aware, I have known Drummond for some years as a result of my tenure as executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and when I joined Nonprofit Quarterly, I invited Pike to be a participant in an informal “investigative journalism” advisory committee meant to feed me topics and pointers about what this column and the other pieces I write for the magazine might address. Just so you know, “informal” is pretty much the word for that committee, and I haven’t talked to Pike in some months, certainly long before the Rathke incident, and certainly not about ACORN or Rathke–ever. Nonetheless, I saw Pike’s blog items about Rathke, including his negative comments about an inquiry he received from Pablo Eisenberg, the columnist for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and I was very surprised. Pike’s blog item, which was at http://www.tides.org/drummondpike/index.php/2008/08/13/pablo-on-acorn-will-it-be-fair-and-balanced/ , seems to have been pulled down, I don’t know why. But my recollection of it was that the nub of Pike’s argument focused on ACORN not being a “traditional charity”,but a “democratic membership organization of low income people”, and therefore the requests of its funders for transparency, audits, disclosure, etc. weren’t quite what was needed. For the past 10 years of my work at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and my continuing work at Nonprofit Quarterly, I have advocated more transparency is needed in our sector, in our society, in our government, not less, and therefore I suspect that Drummond Pike and I aren’t in convergence on that specific aspect of his argument. Regarding his purchase of the promissory note regarding the restitution commitment made by the Rathkes, since that was negotiated prior to his blog postings on Rathke’s resignation and on Eisenberg’s inquiries, it would have been good for him to have made that information known rather than to have had it disclosed in the NY Times.
Dear John (of the comment of 8/18 at 3:58 pm): Thank you for your comment and your kind words about our intentions here at CR regarding the ACORN story–and, in fact, all of the stories we cover. The editors of Nonprofit Quarterly have encouraged me to keep this web-based conversation about the ACORN issue going, because they believe–correctly, I think–that there is much to be learned from this story. In part, the learning comes through questions. Your question about why Dale Rathke’s continued to receive a salary of $38,000 even after the embezzlement was discovered and a restitution agreement signed is quite legitimate, especially since, if the NY Times article is correct, the annual restitution payment may have been less than the continuing salary payment. Your note raises two questions: (1) What was it after 1988 that put you into a constant helpless depression, as you described it, concerning the manner in which Dale Rathke maintained the books for ACORN and its affiliated nonprofit and other corporations? It must be very complex to manage the finances for the complex array of organizations under ACORN’s wing, so the issue is, other than the obvious issue of someone stealing money, which can happen anywhere, what should have been the better system of financial controls that ACORN should have and could have designed and deployed? (I invite other CR readers to join in on this). (2) You said that you would have approved of what you called the “cover up strategy”. I’ve seen different calls on this question. Can you offer your analysis of why you think this strategy might have been the most appropriate strategy for ACORN to take? I saw that Drummond Pike’s blog posting on this defended the “private restitution deal” as an alternative to actions that would threaten ACORN’s survival (http://www.tides.org/drummondpike/index.php/2008/08/13/pablo-on-acorn-will-it-be-fair-and-balanced/ , thought the link isn’t working right now as far as I can tell). I’m interested to see how ACORN or other similarly situated organizations would think about handling the confluence of financial and organizational pressures that this kind of incident would bring to the surface. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts on our webpage.
Dear Rick (of your comment of 8/19 at (9:08 pm): Answers to two questions: (1) After 1988, with the resignation of the very competent Sue B., the accounting system quickly disintegrated. There were no computers. It had all been done by hand. Sue had trained a payroll clerk and bank reconciler, JoAnn B., who had learned to make payroll tax deposits, quarterly payroll tax reports, individual earnings records and annual W-2 forms and reports. But all cash and general journals and ledgers fell behind and contained thousands of uncorrected errors due to inability or failure to hire enough accountants with the capacity to cope with the challenges. Forget the usual forms of internal control. There were virtually none possible. Dale trusted no one but himself. Or trusted completly in those incompetant for the task. Forget transparency and disclosure on a timely basis. It was not possible. Don’t ask me, I still live in Little Rock where the whole thing started. Sue B. started in Little Rock under Wade and moved all the financial records to New Orleans when Wade moved. Dale started later in New Orleans, with quickly increasing financial authority, after graduating from Yale (Phd.English), but before Sue B. left. Sue B. and Dale finally had issues which could not be reconciled. She told me, “I hate my job and I hate my life” and always had a headache, but could do or find anything I needed . After Sue B.’s departure in 1988 the bank statements and cancelled checks and check book stubs and bank reconciliations were the only reliable records. When it came time to prepare annual federal and state forms 990 and 1120 it was up to me. If financial statements had to be reconstructed from the bank statements and cancelled checks I did the minimum necessary one entity at a time. I had about 50 file boxes with working papers that I carted back and forth between Little Rock and New Orleans until finally Dale provided some used filing cabinets for me in New Orleans. Extensions were filed when necessary but the task of filing often fell 2-3 years behind. By the time I got finished the reports and returns were ancient history. The IRS never examined. No taxes were ever due so there were no penalties or interest. If anybody was dissatisfied they never contacted me. My name and signature were on all reports and returns. There were very serious deficiencies which I could not correct. They had to do with obvious comingling of funds between the separate corporations, much of which was impossible to correct retroactively if not discovered immediately. Some probably innocent errors. Some probably deliberate and unauthorized cash transfers. I had nobody to tell but Dale. I wanted to resign or be fired. My commuting time and expenses were unbearable. Dale was up to a year past due in paying my monthly invoices. My capital was way inadequate for this. I was financing my life with credit cards. They needed to get a New Orleans CPA firm to take over. But with this mess who would accept it? About 1990 Dale agreed to meet with Arthur Andersen consulting experts I talked into coming down from Chicago to tell us what to do. Hey, that was cool, they even had a New Orleans office who could take over all the audit and tax work when new systens got things under control. Andersen spent one day in New Orleans talking to Dale and me and knew exactly what to do. A few days later Dale called and said Andersen had submitted a detailed proposal with a fee estimate of $100,000 for installing a computer system. He said no, too expensive. I should have resigned immediately, but I could not resign without getting paid. Everybody knows what later happened to Andersen for not resigning from Enron when they had conflicts regarding material differences of opinion and judgement affecting the audit reports, disclosures and transparency. Next thing I knew, Dale allowed a Great Plains computer accounting system to be installed. How they got it up and running I’ll never know. What I was interested in was the output. I quickly learned the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out”. The first thing that had to be created was a chart of accounts and account numbers. I think Dale did it all by himself. With abont 75 corporations and who knows how many restricted and unrestricted funds it must have been a daunting task. The chart was about the size of the N. O. phone book and growing daily. If the first coding of an entry was incorrect, too bad, it could not be deleted and reentered correctly. Instead a new entry had to be made transferring the transaction from the incorrect account to the correct account. And if that correction was not done correctly yet another correcting entry had to be made. I just could not enjoy this. I hated my job and hated my life. Yup, depressed. After a couple of years like this, I discovered the very fine old N. O. CPA firm of Duplantier et al. They had some expertise with the Great Plains system and were willing to come in and survey the situation. Dale agreed. Right away I gave them complete access to all my files and even gave them all the tax returns to prepare. Whatever they wanted to do. They did a lot of tax work in a few months while I finished up a couple of audits. I asked them if they were getting paid for what they had done so far. They said yes and they had the ability to go do something else if not. I told them that my unpaid bills were substantial but that I wanted out. One day in Decenber, 1994, I was in Dale’s office briefly and at a glance I saw a whole pile of Engagement Letters on his desk. I knew immediately they were from Duplantier and a separate letter for each corporation. Hallaluia, I had been delivered. In January, 1995, Dale ordered me out of his office and we haven’t spoken since. Neither have I heard from Wade. In 1996 I sued to collect the balances due on my accounts. The defense had no defense and I was awarded a judgement of $200,000. The next step, to collect the judgement, was disappointing. I was persuaded to settle for $140,000. This enabled me to pay off all my secured creditors, but I wrote off $60,000 and was done with it. Easy come, easy go.
(2) I think I approve of the “cover up strategy” because I knew that the Duplantier firm was on the job and had seen the evidence and chose to join in. My source said that Wade had seen a report that caused him to question why the payments to American Express were so high? So they searched for the American Express statements and found that Dale had them all in his possession. He still must have had the power to pay without restrictions by anybody. He agreed to restitution that was probable someday. His motive may never be known. If Dale were fired in 2001, Wade probably would have been forced to resign at the same time. I don’t know when Acorn International was formed. At least there has been 8 years to prepare for both departures at once. I think that the life of the associated organizations bearing the ACORN brand is more likely to survive after these preparations than if both departures were sudden and without warning in 2001. There are about 500,000 members that probably want them to survive too.
My question to you John AT is this. How do you know Wade wasn’t getting any of the embezzled funds? Also how could any responsible ED put his brother in charge and in control of so much power? I don’t know about others but my brother and I love each other very much but we also fight and resent each other for very personal reasons at times. How could anyone think it was a good idea to make Dale the principle spicket for all transactions? How could that happen without the presence of a very dysfunctional BOD? Who was under a very unhealthy control of Eade Rathke?
I am having a very hard time understanding the statement “I think I agree with the coverup”. Now that ACORN board members are split in half and suing for financial records I could hardly agree. Did anyone see the article in the Sept 8th NY Times about the board suing to have Rathkr removed from their offices and demanding financial records? This is so sad.
Thanks for all of this interesting reading.
John summed it up and I am fully caught up on CCI news. I was an employee there, and I left in 1988. I remember Sue, and Joann B. After Sue left it was hard to find anyone to fill her void. Each “Controller” were simply caretakers. Sue was the one whom Dale trusted the most. I never knew their history, but I knew she remained a sounding or query board for him.
25 years is a long time, but now it seems like it was only yesterday.
[...] National Committee for Responsible Philanthropy, laments the turn of events at ACORN on his blog, “The Cohen Report,” (July 25). But what is most remarkable are the 37 comments from former ACORN organizers and others [...]
I have been trying to find all over the place and can not find the names of the 51 Current Members of the National Board of Directors for National Acorn.
Do you or anyone here know who these people are?
Can you yet draw some kind of conclusions regarding the funding maze that has gone on for years among the so called umbrella organizations? Federal funds from grants to non-profits require as standard practice Independant Audits of money and progam accomplishments…Boards of Directors of every nonprofit I have ever been involvbed with in 30 years have as a central duty fiduciary oversight ….What in the hell have these Board People been doing for years?
Did no one see financial reports? Can they even read them? Please pursue some answers for me because we all need this information…And then there are Federal Program Monitors for Federal Funds and grants.. Thanks,,
Dear john (of your comment AT: 8/23/2008, AT 12:19 am): The only way one would know that Wade got none of the embezzled funds is to accept Dale’s word for it, in the absence of proof otherwise. In my opinion Dale was incompetent to do his job properly and had an attitude of entitlement because of his family ties, the result of nepotism. This became more clear as the organizations grew. Apparently because of the obvious nepotism, Wade disqualified himself and accepted a small inner circle’s decision to cover up the fraud in exchange for a formal restituton and cover-up agreement. This small inner circle, at least one of whom included the Board Member and President, Maude Hurd, was able to cover up this “situation” simply by not informing the full Board. How would they know that the incident would become an issue of world wide knowledge in the 2008 presidential campaign?
Dear Rick, john and Helene Saucet: Now with more perfect hindsight I have changed my mind regarding my statement “I think I agree with the cover up”. When the cover up was uncovered the Board took swift action just as they probably would have done back in 2000. The authorities probably would have been informed and “the rule of law” applied. All this would be behind us and hopefully all the wounds healed.
[...] “prepare a ‘keep your yaps shut’ confidentiality memo to people at Acorn and CCI.” — John’s Comments worth reading CCI [Citizens Consulting, Inc.] the company that Dale Rathke oversaw was the financial [...]
In light of all this, I would hope that ACORN’s fiscal issuse and this voter registration drive will not take center stage on the fact that this economy is suffering at the hands of inept leadership. I will not comment on the political arena or fiasco at this point. Assailing Wade or Dale will get you know where. Observation of their placement in the organization and recollecting any funds lost should be paramount. If the Board maintain confidence in them as leaders, that is a collective agreement. Please evaluate the organization on the work they have done and are striving to continue. Perhaps the Board should look to an Audit firm to provide assistance in strategic in house “strengthening”. In that vein, maybe some of them (Board Members) will see that they may not be the right fit for the organization at this point. (I would say that about many of the non profit organizations in the US).
My issue is in philanthropic and fiscal accountability. A total overhaul is needed in federal and private giving to many non profit organizations. The laws passed under S/O do not get into the real heart and meat of the matter. The feds in their drive to cut down on gov spending has allowed grant entities to become so laxed in their requirements. Gone are the days when a grants officer and project officer would visit grantees to observe and review projects and fiscal operations. This has given entities that receive funds carte blanche to operate in any manner, and problems are found out after project periods have ended. Private grantors do even less.
Does ACORN need a review???? Yes!!!!!! Is it too late??? No.
I still believe in the goals and mission of the operations, and I do know and remember that there were and still are people involved with the organization that still care about people.
My organization donated funds to them for Katrina Relief, and I still stand by my recommendation over 3 years ago.
If any Board Members are reading this, ACT NOW please.
Thank you for this article on Wade Rathke (founder of ACORN) and his brother, Dale Rathke, who embezzled just under one million dollars from the organization and is now FINALLY under investigation in the last 3 weeks. We have seen very little here in the newspaper or on TV in New Orleans or in the national press. I have only heard Rush mention his name on the radio. Dale Rathke’s elderly parents and certain rich friend(s)have been paying back the money since 2000 and Dale and his brother and people high up in ACORN have kept the whole thing quiet. Can you tell me why the brothers are not in jail? Their mother and father have enabled yet another set of kids (in their 50’s, mind you) cover up a crime and go unpunished!
As a New Orleans native who has served on a board with Dale Rathke, I am sickened about his behavior and about the cover-up. Dale has always enjoyed a very lavish lifestyle and now I know why. Just pathetic! Where does all our money go? Don’t answer that!
Thank you
This is an incredible story. I’m very interested in knowing what percentage of all of ACORN’s income comes from federal funding via the taxpayers?
Over the last year or so I have personally received and sent email, phone calls, blogs, twitters and a small mountain of Facebook messages to and from friends with “inside information”. I saved none of it from my side, but I have satisfied myself, at least informally, that it is now possible for ACORN to become accountable and transparent and I have assurance that Bertha Lewis, present CEO of ACORN has now arranged to make that happen. All of the audit reports and tax returns that I signed from inception to the Duplantier era are now engraved in stone as far as I am concerned and no further “forensic” accounting or auditing is likely without a TARP type bailout. I welcome any further comments or questions. Thanks Rick for getting me started on this matter.