Just an isolated incident? Think again. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549241,00.html ACORN Fires More Officials for Helping 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' in Washington Office Two more ACORN officials were fired Friday after a second video surfaced showing staffers in the community organizers' Washington office offering to help a man and woman posing as a pimp and prostitute acquire illegal home loans that would help them set up a brothel. The firings came less than 24 hours after another pair of ACORN officials from the group's Baltimore office were canned for instructing the "pimp" and "prostitute" how to falsify tax forms and seek illegal benefits for 13 "very young" girls from El Salvador that pair said they wanted to import to work as child prostitutes. Both of the encounters were videotaped on a hidden camera wielded by 25-year-old independent filmmaker James O'Keefe, posing as the pimp — tapes that have ignited calls for investigations of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The United States Census Director has sent a letter to the National Headquarters of ACORN notifying the group that it will no longer help work on the 2010 census. The group's leaders said Friday they were "appalled and angry" at what their staffers had done, but insisted the videos were part of a political "smear" campaign and not representative of the institution as a whole. "But that does not excuse the behavior of the employees," wrote ACORN's president Alton Bennet and executive director Mike Shea. "We have fired them and are initiating an internal review of practices and reminding all staff of their obligation to uphold the highest legal and ethical standards." Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., called for a hearing to investigate ACORN's tax filing assistance programs following the release of the videos he said suggested multiple incidents of tax fraud. "In light of the apparent flagrant and willful attempts to suborn tax fraud, I ... (am seeking) a hearing of the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee as soon as practicable to investigate ACORN’s activities," he said Friday. O'Keefe, the filmmaker, was accompanied by 20-year-old Hannah Giles, who posed as a prostitute. On a videotape of their visit to ACORN's Washington's office, they are seen receiving guidance to establish the woman as the sole proprietor of a bogus company to mask the nature of her business. "She's not going to put on (the loan application) that she's doing prostitution ... she doesn't have to," a now-fired ACORN staffer says. "You don't have to sit back and tell people what you do." • Click here to see video. The ACORN staffer is heard suggesting that O'Keefe can purchase a house, and as the landlord, if he is ever questioned by authorities, he can say he was unaware of the illegal business going on inside. "[W]hen the police ask you, (tell them) you don't know where (the money is) coming from," the staffer said. "We are looking out for you." The ACORN employee later suggests that O'Keefe, who said he had a budding political career, not linger at the house in case people "put the dots together" and leave him "smeared and tarnished" by his association with his prostitute girlfriend. She should keep her business "low key," the employee continued, saying "You have neighbors and they see stuff. Don't think that people won't get on the telephone and call Fox." • STORY: ACORN Officials Videotaped Telling 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' How to Lie to IRS One day before the Washington video was shot, O'Keefe and Giles sought help from ACORN workers in Baltimore, who told the pair how to falsify tax forms and seek illegal benefits for 13 "very young" girls from El Salvador that they said they said they wanted to import as prostitutes. As he did in the taping in Baltimore, O'Keefe told the Washington officers that he had plans to bring as many as 10 women from El Salvador to work as prostitutes in Giles' "business." "There's like 10 girls," O'Keefe says. "There's ten El Salvodoreans." The ACORN staffer replies, "I understand what you are saying." ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — calls itself a network of families "working together for social justice and stronger communities," according to its Web site. The organization has been accused by conservatives and Republicans of committing fraud in voter registration drives around the country, and reaction to the videotape came swiftly after its release on Thursday. "Taxpayers should be outraged that their money has gone to an organization that, in addition to facing charges of voter fraud and tax violations, is willing to facilitate prostitution," said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. "As this video confirms, ACORN continues to operate as a criminal enterprise." The first videotape, made in the Baltimore offices of ACORN, was made public Thursday on the political blog BigGovernment.com. That night, after portions of the video were aired throughout the day on FOX News, the group fired the two women who assisted O'Keefe and Giles in Baltimore.
A THIRD STING ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN SILENT The scandal surrounding the left-wing activist organization ACORN has spread to New York, with employees at its Brooklyn office caught on video helping supposed ladies of the night get loans for their dream houses of ill repute. Rather than reminding the women that prostitution is dangerous and illegal and advising them to change their careers, counselors at the social-services group shockingly offer suggestions on how they can launder their earnings. 'Pimp & hooker' catch B'klyn staff By JEREMY OLSHAN Last Updated: 12:41 PM, September 14, 2009 Posted: 3:30 AM, September 14, 2009 "Honesty is not going to get you the house," a loan counselor at the offices told two activists posing as a mortgage-seeking pimp and prostitute. "You can't say what you do for a living." ACORN workers in two other cities, Baltimore and Washington, DC, had already fallen hooker, line and sinker for the hidden-camera sting operation by two conservative activists. Four ACORN employees have been fired as a result of the earlier videos, and last Friday the Census Bureau severed its ties with the group, whose members had been hired to do canvassing during the 2010 census. Mayor Bloomberg spoke out on the controversy today. "Prostitution is illegal in this state and I don't know why they would -- why an organization like ACORN, who's trying to encourage voter turnout and voter registration, why they're getting involved in any of that stuff," Bloomberg said. "But clearly it's not appropriate and they shouldn't have been doing it. Whether they broke a law or not I don't know. You'll have to talk to the legal (authorities)." The Brooklyn DA's office announced today it would be investigating the group. In an unrelated outrage, ACORN was accused of widespread voter fraud during the 2008 presidential election by helping unqualified voters to register. As in prior videos released by the filmmaking team of James O'Keefe, 25, and Hannah Giles, 20, employees of the group -- which specializes in housing and voter activism -- were eager to dispense advice on gaming the system and skirting the law. "You know, what goes on in the house we don't care," one counselor said. "We just help you with the mortgage." O'Keefe and Giles were garishly dressed as a stereotypical pimp and prostitute. O'Keefe was decked out in excessively snazzy flesh-peddler couture, and Giles, going by the name "Eden," wore almost nothing. The ACORN workers were not the slightest bit judgmental or put off by the request for help in getting financing for a brothel. Counselor Volda Albert freely offered financial advice to the young couple, and held back on giving out any life advice. "I can't tell you don't do it, because you won't listen to me," Albert said. For tax and banking purposes, and to establish a legitimate income and credit history, Giles was told she needed to start saying she was a "freelancer." "Don't say that you're a prostitute thing or whatever," she said. Albert also suggested that Giles open two accounts at separate banks, depositing no more than $500 each a week to ensure few eyebrows are raised. As for the rest of the money she earned from turning tricks, Albert told her to hide it away. "When you buy the house with a back yard. You get a tin . . . and bury it down in there, and you put the money right in, and you put grass over it, and you don't tell a single soul but yourself where it is," she said. Albert even had advice on protecting O'Keefe from getting tied by authorities to Giles' prostitution. Her illegally obtained revenue could be given to O'Keefe through an intermediary, and then he could use it for a down payment on the house by applying for a "no doc" loan. In the earlier videos, counselors offered similar suggestions to a "prostitute," telling her to list her occupation as "performance artist," and even offering advice on how to claim as dependants underage girls recruited for the business. Milagros Rivera, the Brooklyn office administrator advised Giles, "don't get caught -- it's against the law what you are doing, and there's a chance you'll get caught." Before bidding them good luck, Albert offered two final suggestions. "Save for a rainy day," she said. "And live well." O'Keefe, who majored in philosophy at Rutgers University, said he and Giles funded the project themselves. This kind of undercover, guerrilla tactic is the "future of investigative journalism and political activism," he said. Inspired by "Rules for Radicals," Saul Alinsky's bible for rabble-rousing, more often associated with the left, O'Keefe said he has been targeting and exposing the "absurdities of the enemy by employing their own rules and language." "If you can make impossible demands on your enemy, you can destroy them," he said. So he began using a hidden camera "in a location I'd rather not disclose" and started visiting ACORN offices around the Northeast. As with a series of videos O'Keefe made in 2008, in which Planned Parenthood employees agreed to earmark his donations for the abortions of African-American babies, he said he expected ACORN would yield maybe "a few gotcha moments." "But we never imagined they would all comply -- it's just disgusting they didn't just throw us out of the office," he said. In a statement released Saturday, ACORN said that it could not defend the actions of its employees but that what O'Keefe and Giles did was criminal. "And, in fact, a crime it was -- our lawyers believe a felony -- and we will be taking legal action against Fox and their co-conspirators," the statement said. Fox News aired the Baltimore and Washington tapes. O'Keefe said, "ACORN wants it both ways." "You can't fire the employees and then say I have defamed them," he said.
