This is serious stuff. Citizens for Responsibility in Ethics in Washington (CREW) is going after Grover Norquist -- he should be afraid.
Grover's name keeps popping up in the middle of the Abramoff scandal. Now, CREW is alleging that Grover was using his non-profits as for-profit companies to launder money. That would violate IRS rules - irnoic for the leading anti-tax guy:
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today filed an Internal Revenue Services (IRS) complaint against Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and American for Tax Reform Foundation (ATR Foundation), conservative, non-profit organizations led by right-wing activist Grover Norquist. The complaint asks the IRS to investigate activities by the groups which may violate IRS regulations and require a revocation of their tax-exempt status.CREW doesn't mess around. If they see smoke, there's usually a fire. The question is whether the IRS will dare to investigate Grover Norquist who is the heart and soul of conservative power in DC.
The complaint alleges that Norquist used either or both ATR and ATR Foundation as commercial enterprises by laundering money derived from Indian casino clients of former lobbyist and convicted felon Jack Abramoff. The casinos made contributions to ATR, which then skimmed a fee off the top before passing the money on to former Christian activist Ralph Reed and other anti-gambling activists. In this way, Norquist, Reed and Abramoff were able to disguise the fact that the money used to fund anti-gambling activities was generated through Indian gambling. The point of the anti-gambling campaigns was to prevent competition to the Indian casinos.
Reed originally denied knowing the funds came from Indian casinos, but during hearings held by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Sen. John McCain released numerous e-mails clearly demonstrating that he did, in fact, know where the money came from. The e-mails show that Reed and Norquist worked with Abramoff to create the anti-gambling campaigns and to develop the scheme to hide the origins of the money.
