A former member of ACORN's board of directors confirms that the radical community organizing group, which declared bankruptcy on Election Day, is planning to continue operating in a different form.
"I predicted this over a year and a half ago," said Marcel Reid, the former chair of the Washington, DC chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. "It's going to be a loose federation."
Reid said ACORN's name was "besmirched" so badly by an embezzlement scandal in 2008 that it needed to be renamed even before it was further embarrassed by a video sting operation in 2009. In the stings two conservative activists posed as a pimp and a prostitute trying to set up a brothels. The pair sought and received help from ACORN officials in a series of cities.
The groups in the federation will have "a number of new names" in different parts of the country, according to Reid. She predicted the name change will "absolutely" enable ACORN to get beyond the scandals.
"Remember, ACORN was the premier political organizing group in the nation," said Reid. "To this day, even the Tea Parties can't touch ACORN's organizing model."
Reid served briefly on a committee of directors delegated by ACORN's board to reorganize the group in the wake of the devastating embezzlement revelations. She was removed after discovering extensive corruption.
"We started in June 2008 and by August we found so many irregularities it was our duty to go to the board. The minute we did that ACORN organized against us," recalled Reid.
"My mission was to restructure the organization . . . I found out it was more than 200 groups, not the five or six I was anticipating. . . . ACORN was a genius at hiding how they operated."
Reid described ACORN as an "amazing amalgam" of nonprofit and for-profit groups, supported by numerous foundations and corporations.
"The funds were commingled," she said. "Funds were never segregated."
"They didn't want us to look at those books," she added.
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"I predicted this over a year and a half ago," said Marcel Reid, the former chair of the Washington, DC chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. "It's going to be a loose federation."
Reid said ACORN's name was "besmirched" so badly by an embezzlement scandal in 2008 that it needed to be renamed even before it was further embarrassed by a video sting operation in 2009. In the stings two conservative activists posed as a pimp and a prostitute trying to set up a brothels. The pair sought and received help from ACORN officials in a series of cities.
The groups in the federation will have "a number of new names" in different parts of the country, according to Reid. She predicted the name change will "absolutely" enable ACORN to get beyond the scandals.
"Remember, ACORN was the premier political organizing group in the nation," said Reid. "To this day, even the Tea Parties can't touch ACORN's organizing model."
Reid served briefly on a committee of directors delegated by ACORN's board to reorganize the group in the wake of the devastating embezzlement revelations. She was removed after discovering extensive corruption.
"We started in June 2008 and by August we found so many irregularities it was our duty to go to the board. The minute we did that ACORN organized against us," recalled Reid.
"My mission was to restructure the organization . . . I found out it was more than 200 groups, not the five or six I was anticipating. . . . ACORN was a genius at hiding how they operated."
Reid described ACORN as an "amazing amalgam" of nonprofit and for-profit groups, supported by numerous foundations and corporations.
"The funds were commingled," she said. "Funds were never segregated."
"They didn't want us to look at those books," she added.
Keep reading here -->
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