Whoa: Is the IRS Now Looking into the Clinton Foundation, Too?

All signs point to Yes.

A little office in Dallas is in charge of probing the conduct of tax-exempt organizations to determine their compliance with the law.

Most IRS reviews aim to discover if nonprofit officials and members are enriching themselves with the money raised for charity. Spending money on staff salaries and lavish events are common nonprofit pitfalls. If the board of directors knew of the abuses, they too could be violating the law.

Using a nonprofit group for personal enrichment — called inurement — is one sure-fire way to gain IRS scrutiny....

The central question is not exactly one the IRS can easily track: Did the founding members trade influence for donations, especially while Hillary Clinton was secretary of State?

Clinton and her staff have consistently denied any conflicts of interest or improper enrichment and cite reporting holes in the media stories and books claiming pay-to-play relationships. But since July, more information has been revealed, via hacked email correspondences of Clinton adviser John Podesta released by Wikileaks.

The emails reveal that Chelsea Clinton ordered an audit of the foundation and "some interviewees reported conflicts of those raising funds or donors, some of whom may have an expectation of quid pro quo benefits in return for gifts."

That's an eye-catcher for the TE/GE folks looking for specific examples of inurement. Instead of money changing hands, the IRS is looking to see if the Clintons traded money for preferential treatment. The IRS rules lay out what qualifies as inurement:

"Any transaction between an organization and a private individual in which the individual appears to receive a disproportionate share of the benefits of the exchange relative to the charity served presents an inurement issue. Such transactions may include assignments of income, compensation arrangements, sales or exchanges of property, commissions, rental arrangements, gifts with retained interests, and contracts to provide goods or services to the organization."

Given this language, citing "gifts" and "quid pro quo benefits" in emails is a pretty bad move for anyone involved in a nonprofit group. Another bad move: When senior Clinton advisers like Doug Bland call the intersection of the foundation fundraising and the former president's personal activities 'Bill Clinton Inc."

Greedy grifters gonna grift greedily.

To literal hell with the lot.

posted by Ace at 05:32 PM

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