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According to a report by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, "five conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist [7], 'appear to have perpetrated a fraud' on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff [8]." The nonprofits are Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform [9], the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy [10], Citizens Against Government Waste [11], the National Center for Public Policy Research [12], and Toward Tradition. The Senate report [13] finds the groups probably violated their tax-exempt status, "by laundering payments and then disbursing funds at Mr. Abramoff's direction; taking payments in exchange for writing newspaper columns and press releases that put Mr. Abramoff's clients in a favorable light; introducing Mr. Abramoff's clients to government officials in exchange for payment; and agreeing to act as a front organization [14] for congressional trips paid for by Mr. Abramoff's clients." Clients benefiting include Microsoft [15] and Primedia [16]'s Channel One [17]. Norquist's attorney countered that "there is no 'abuse' of ATR's tax status," as long as funds are spent in keeping with the mission of Americans for Tax Reform.
Links:
[1] http://dev.prwatch.org/users/6/diane-farsetta
[2] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/politics/right-wing
[3] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations/third-party-technique
[4] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/us-government/us-congress
[5] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/lobbying
[6] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.prwatch.org%2Fspin%2F2006%2F10%2F5303%2Fprofiting-nonprofit-status-thanks-abramoff&linkname=Profiting%20from%20a%20Nonprofit%20Status%2C%20Thanks%20to%20Abramoff
[7] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Grover_Norquist
[8] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Jack_Abramoff
[9] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Americans_for_Tax_Reform
[10] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Council_of_Republicans_for_Environmental_Advocacy
[11] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Citizens_Against_Government_Waste
[12] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/National_Center_for_Public_Policy_Research
[13] http://www.senate.gov/~finance/press/Bpress/2005press/prb101206.pdf
[14] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Front_groups
[15] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Microsoft
[16] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Primedia
[17] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Channel_One
[18] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html