Citigroup Executive Pulls Out of Sham ACORN Audit Under Pressure

Citigroup executive Eric Eve (pictured below) has resigned from ACORN’s phony, allegedly independent panel of inquiry, a move that removes one of the few people on the panel who could even remotely claim to actually be independent.

If you read between the lines, it also seems to mean Citigroup agrees the panel is a sham.

Eve, senior vice president of Global Consumer Group, Community Relations, at Citigroup, quit after the National Legal and Policy Center pressed Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit to cut ties with ACORN.

In a letter to NLPC president Peter Flaherty, Citigroup announced Eve’s resignation from the panel.

“We too are deeply concerned about the recent media reports regarding ACORN and, because of those reports, have suspended our charitable financial support and program relationships with ACORN, and we are awaiting the results of the independent audit of ACORN activities now underway,” wrote Natalie Abatemarco, Citigroup’s vice president, Global Community Relations.

“On a related topic, please be advised that Eric Eve has resigned his position on the ACORN Advisory Council,” she added.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN 8, American Institute for Social Justice, Andrew Stern, Andy Stern
Posted Nov 5th 2009 at 6:01 pm in ACORN, News, Politics | 26186143 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/11/05/citigroup-executive-pulls-out-of-sham-acorn-audit-under-pressure/Citigroup+Executive+Pulls+Out+of+Sham+ACORN+Audit+Under+Pressure2009-11-06+01%3A01%3A15Matthew+Vadum

Fraud, Embezzlement, and Cover-Ups: A Brief History of ACORN

In the wake of a series of embarrassing hidden-camera exposes and mounting congressional pressure to cut off its federal funding, Bertha Lewis, CEO of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now announced that ACORN will seek independent review.  However, the ACORN review which followed the million dollar Rathke embezzlement was merely a smokescreen; eight former ACORN board members previously sought a complete forensic examination of ACORN and its related entities followed by an independent audit from a Big Four accounting firm.

Lewis noted that ACORN’s advisory council would assist her in choosing an outside auditor, former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger. The ACORN advisory council includes John Podesta, head of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank; Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union; and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

“As a result of the indefensible action of a handful of our employees,” Lewis said in a statement, “I am, in consultation with ACORN’s Executive Committee, immediately ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN’s service programs until completion of an independent review.” Mind you, these are the same senior staff and executive committee members who concealed and covered up a million dollar embezzlement, but who themselves were never terminated.

Besides, ACORN already had its chance to do the right thing following the Rathke embezzlement when the board of directors appointed an interim management committee to investigate this fraud and reorganize ACORN. So what happened the last time that ACORN claimed to put in place its own internal management committee? (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN 8, Andrew Stern, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Bertha Lewis
Posted Oct 19th 2009 at 11:55 am in ACORN | 1751051 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mmccray/2009/10/19/fraud-embezzlement-and-cover-ups-a-brief-history-of-acorn/Fraud%2C+Embezzlement%2C+and+Cover-Ups%3A+A+Brief+History+of+ACORN+2009-10-19+18%3A55%3A59Michael+++McCray

ACORN and SEIU Have Been Going Steady a Long Time: Did They Break Up?

Now that ACORN is drowning is an ocean of adverse publicity, its longtime ally the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) claims to have broken with the embattled radical left-wing activist group.

Last week SEIU international secretary-treasurer Anna Burger dropped this political bombshell that has been ignored by the mainstream media.

In response to a question from Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) posed during a meeting of the House Financial Services Committee, Burger casually noted that her union “cut all ties to ACORN.”

In an interview Monday night I asked SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette what Burger meant when she said SEIU had cut all ties with ACORN.

Ringuette replied, “We have suspended all contracts and active work with ACORN,” pending the results of a panel of inquiry looking into ACORN. SEIU boss Andy Stern sits on that supposedly independent panel.

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Tags: ACORN, American Spectator, Andrew Stern, Andy Stern, Anna Burger
Posted Oct 6th 2009 at 2:05 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Obama, Politics | 1346621 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/10/06/acorn-and-seiu-have-been-going-steady-a-long-time-did-they-break-up/ACORN+and+SEIU+Have+Been+Going+Steady+a+Long+Time%3A+Did+They+Break+Up%3F+2009-10-06+21%3A05%3A10Matthew+Vadum

Once Upon an ACORN: Why ACORN’s Internal Audit is a Sham

The announcement by ACORN that it is creating a panel of inquiry consisting of its corrupt friends is a fairy tale. ACORN did the same thing last year after an internal scandal but when the honest people on ACORN’s internal panel began asking uncomfortable questions, it cast them out.

Since it’s a fairy tale, let me tell the story the fairy tale way:

Once upon a time there was a group called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). It was run, and continues to be run today, by very bad people who do very bad things while they pretend to make America a better place.

They get very upset when people point out the bad things they do. They always lie about those things and call those people who speak against them nasty names like “racist” so those people will get scared and run away. Often it works.

They carry out voter registration drives strictly with a view to meeting predetermined quotas. They don’t give a farthing’s cuss if their canvassers register Mickey Mouse or the dead to vote; in fact, they encourage it. As long as the big fat checks keep coming in from billionaire leftist George Soros and Herb and Marion Sandler everything is OK in their eyes.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN 8, Americans for Prosperity, Andrew Stern, Andy Stern
Posted Sep 17th 2009 at 2:42 pm in ACORN | 4210140 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/09/17/once-upon-an-acorn-why-acorns-internal-audit-is-a-sham/Once+Upon+an+ACORN%3A+Why+ACORN%27s+Internal+Audit+is+a+Sham2009-09-17+21%3A42%3A29Matthew+Vadum