Non Profit Scandal: Did 2 NY Dems Pocket Hurricane Katrina Money?

Malcolm Smith

Gregory Meeks

Rep Gregory Meeks, a member of the Congressional Black caucus, is under investigation for a familiar way CBC members love to steal taxpayer money by using non-profit organizations to hide their alleged dirty deeds in the name of helping people.

However, Greggie is not alone in the shenanigans; New York State Senator Malcolm Smith is also under suspicion for non-profit-money grabbing.

The New York Post reports:

Meeks' controversial charity, New Yorkers Organized to Assist Hurricane Families, is now under investigation by federal prosecutors.

According to its own filings, NOAH-F delivered just $1,392 of the roughly $31,000 it raised

"These people came down here, sold a good story and didn't deliver," said Louis Rainey, a former Louisiana Democratic political director who himself lost his home to Katrina.

"We didn't get the funds," Rainey told The Post.

"We never got a dime."

Meeks and state Sen. Malcolm Smith, also a Queens Democrat, established NOAH-F shortly after the storm to help 30 displaced families and made the new charity part of their previously organized New Direction Local Development Corp.

At the time, Meeks told the Times-Ledger, a Queens weekly, "Every dime, every dime, will go to these 30 families."
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In another story reported by The Post relating to the deceitful use of non-profits:

Rep. Gregory Meeks secured a $100,000 federal payout for a Far Rockaway community group whose executive director is a frequent campaign contributor.

The Queens Democrat -- now facing scrutiny for his ties to a controversial Hurricane Katrina charity, earmarked the funds for Ocean Bay Community Development Corp.'s job-training program in the 2010 spending bills, while his campaign pocketed $1,500 from Ocean Bay's executive director, Patricia Simon.

"It's a form a legalized bribery," said Melanie Sloan, of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Americans have to wonder if he is looking out for what is good for the country or good for his campaign coffers, and you really have no way to know."

The US Attorney's Office has launched a probe to find the missing money. The hurricane-relief effort was launched by a nonprofit group, New Directions Local Development Corp., founded by Meeks and state Sen. Malcolm Smith, also of Queens.

Both Meeks and Smith have said the New Directions was run by a board that made decisions about how its funds were used.
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Oh, blame it on the board!

When is NBC, ABC, and CBS going to launch a serious journalistic investigation on how Democrats blatantly are using these non-profits?

I call on my bloggers to report these types of stories which I’m sure are happening in your hometowns as well.

Via The New York Post

The Last Tradition

Elsie L. Scott of Congressional Black Caucus Non Profit, Selling Access to Corporate Lobbyists

So much for bringing change to Washington.



President Obama campaigned hard against the influence of special interests groups that use lobbyists to get “access” in Washington.

But, things haven’t changed a bit in D.C. especially when it comes to the CBC and the way they use “non-profits” such as the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) to collect funds from much hated corporate America.

I mean, at least hated publicly to rake in the votes from Black America. But in the privacy of convention halls, corporate boardrooms and golf courses, it’s all love and kisses with a cashier’s check.

According the New York Times:
Elsie L. Scott, chief executive of the CBCF, acknowledged that the companies want to influence members.
In fact, the fund-raising brochures make clear that the bigger the donation, the greater the access, like a private reception that includes members of Congress for those who give more than $100,000.

“They are trying to get the attention of the C.B.C. members,” Ms. Scott said. “And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. They’re in business, and they want to deal with people who have influence and power.

Black people gamble. Black people smoke. Black people drink,” she said in an interview. “And so if these companies want to take some of the money they’ve earned off of our people and give it to us to support good causes, then we take it.”

I guess she means good causes like paying of the mortgage of the CBC headquarters.

Via New York Times

From The Last Tradition