ACORN Tax Advice Video Causes More Trouble

ACORN is the Association of Community Organizations of Reform Now. ACORN provides services to lower income people. Part of what they do is to help lower income families obtain affordable housing by helping them receive loans. They also assist with voter registration and the census.

James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles went into ACORN offices in Baltimore, MD and Washington DC and asked for about how to hide that Giles income was from prostitution. Working undercover, the couple were secretly video taping the visits.

O'Keefe portrayed himself as someone that one day was going to run for office. Giles's role was O'Keefe's girlfriend who was also a working prostitute. The two were asking for advice on how to hide her income source on legal forms specifically for a loan for a house. The house was going to be used for them to operate an underage prostitution ring with girls from El Salvador.

In the videos, ACORN employees give them all kinds of advice on how to report her income and expenses for tax purposes and even how to operate an illegal prostitution operation. In one video one employee even declares that prostitution is a performing art. The employee explains how Giles could list her occupation as performing artist on her tax forms. Also on the video it shows the ACORN employees telling Giles that she could count three of the underage girls working as prostitutes as dependents on her taxes.

ACORN has fired the employees involved in the videos. They are planning on conducting an internal investigation and provide additional training to employees to remind them of their ethical standards.

ACORN claims that the group that did the undercover prostitution video tapes also went to other ACORN offices. ACORN claims they also went to offices in New York, LA and Philadelphia. At the other offices, the couple was turned away and in some cases they were reported to the law enforcement.

ACORN has been under heavy attack since the 2008 presidential elections. The Republican Party has accused ACORN of voter registration fraud during last year’s elections. ACORN claims that only a small number of employees were involved in falsifying voter registration cards and that the employees did the fraud in an attempt to increase their pay.

This has not been a great week for ACORN. As a result of the ACORN prostitution videos, the Census Bureau has severed its ties with them. ACORN was supposed to be one of the groups assisting with collection the 2010 census head counting information.

The Census Bureau is concerned that the negative publicity from the ACORN prostitution videos could cause or give the impression of the 2010 census count being tainted. The Census Bureau has been watching ACORN closely since the voter fraud issue from last year.

Also this week in Florida, 11 people were arrested for falsifying hundreds of voter registration cards. The arrests came after an investigation that was conducted based on information that ACORN had given to authorities when the organization had found numerous discrepancies on voter cards.

A call for a Congressional investigation of ACORN and its practices has also been called for since the release of the prostitution videos. ACORN receives federal funding and some are now wondering if that funding should continue.

You can view one of the videos here.