Audit: Sharpton Owes Government $500,000 From 2004 Campaign

WASHINGTON — Federal auditors have concluded the Rev. Al Sharpton's 2004 campaign owes the government nearly $500,000 for illegal donations and other financial improprieties. Sharpton has been feuding with the Federal Election Commission for years over his accounting in his failed run for president, for which he received $100,000 in so-called government matching funds that authorities later concluded he did not deserve because he hadn't followed campaign laws.

The auditors have now determined that Sharpton owes $486,803 to the U.S. Treasury because of his campaign's taking improper donations, largely from the National Action Network, a not-for-profit corporation that Sharpton leads but is separate from his campaign committee.

Sharpton will appeal the finding, aides said Friday, which would extend an already years-long fight with the government over how he raised and spent money to run for president.

The audit report is "a gross violation of Reverend Al Sharpton's right to perform his paid duties as president of the National Action Network, a traveling minister, lecturer, and an author who was promoting a book during the time period being audited," said his spokeswoman, Rachel Noerdlinger.

Sharpton's campaign finances came under scrutiny as he campaigned, speaking at churches where he collected "love offerings" that are common to traveling preachers.

At the same time, he was campaigning for president, and paying for much of it with his personal American Express card.

Some of the costs were paid by the National Action Network, some by a different company called Rev-Als Production Inc.

"Virtually no effort appears to have been made by Sharpton 2004, the candidate, NAN, or Rev-Als. Production Inc. to keep any sort of detailed records demonstrating what payments paid for which travel," the report found, noting what it called the campaign's "nearly complete failure to produce any information on this subject in the course of the audit."

The FEC audit is just the latest in a long list of money problems for Sharpton.

Last summer, federal prosecutors decided not to seek criminal charges against him over unpaid taxes after a lengthy grand jury investigation.

The IRS obtained a $931,397 lien against Sharpton. City and state officials said he owned them another $933,577. Separately, the National Action Network said in its most recent tax filing that it owed at least $1.9 million in payroll taxes and related interest.

Comments

[NextYearLions]

Quick, Obama, pardon him.

[edwarvir]

I will always be grateful to Rev Al Sharpton for
helping me to take on the City of New York CPS
He stood beside me when they wanted to take my foster
child away from me. After I raised him from 4 weeks until
he was five years old. It's a long story
but he was not afraid to help me and WE WON
My son is now 19 and in college, so if there is anything
I can do to help him , I will. I will never forget him
and how he came to see about me. when I was desperate.

[TerryFL]

.

Memo to the citizens: Do NOT cross the road after an ambulance passes. The Reverend will be following close behind.

.

[Daisy1111]

Jeeze! These comments -- you're crucifying the man and clearly know nothing about the work he's done for over 40 years getting out the AA vote.

Could it be that O-supporters are racist?

[sdskelton03]

Al Sharpton is irrelevant. He is a race-hustling charlatan that represents the past of black grievance and victimhood.

Systemic racism has been disproven. The "system" just elected a black man POTUS.

[Daisy1111]

Oh. My. God.

Systemic racism has been disproven?

Oh jeeze -- I'm white and I don't even believe that?

You think the prison population happenes to be 90% AA by accident?

Oh God! You people are scary.

[sdskelton03]

First of all, I think you pulled the 90% figure out of your backside. Blacks are over-represented in the prison population, but prisons arent 90% black.

You immediatly jump to the conclusion Al, Jesse and all the other race/guilt hustlers want you to. It must be whitey's fault.

Truth of the matter is, in terms of AA prison population, the place to look for blame is the AA's that commit crimes (mostly black on black) and end up in prison.

The era of race-hustling is over and the era of personal accountability is at hand.

[jean22]

Well as an African American I and many others DO think Jesse and Sharpton have and still do in many instances represent our feelings, values and beliefs. Shady? What has he done in your mind to earn such a label? I appreciate EVERYONE who dares to stick his/her neck out and place their lives on the line to challenge injustice. I can't see how anyone who really values civil rights for ALL wouldn't.

[Daisy1111]

jean22:

These people commenting don't know what they're talking about. S h a r p t on and J a c k s o n, their generation, made O b a m a possible.

And if anyone thinks he could have won POTUS without the work of these and other AA leaders the last 50 years they are nuts.

I'm white. From NYC and lived through the years of Sharpton's rise as a civil rights leader.

He did a LOT of GOOD work, His hard-edged, in your face style was necessary then. It was the squeaky wheel method.

Al started refistering AA voters 40 years ago making them a political force in NYC. NYC politicians knew that Al was empowering AA voters and if they wanted to be elected they had better do the right thing.

Maybe he wasn't known worldwide back then but I know what he did in NYC.

The NYPD was lily white in the 60s and racist. The Rev. Al was in their faces until they started hiring AA cops in the late 60s. It made a difference.

Did he act like a wild man? Sure he did -- that's how he got the press to cover his demonstrations during a time when MSM trteated AA as invisable.

The man has an encylopedic mind. I always liked the REV. He always seemed to be the first to verbalize what was on my mind.

I repeat -- Al and Jesse (and others) made the new POTUS possible.

[tbone99]

I guess he can send it directly to Goldman Sachs.

[gintheb]

Chump probably spent that much on his hairdo since 2004.

[ObamaSeeChange]

As an African American I don't think it could happen to a shadier guy after the MSM continue to give he and Jesse Jackson a pass and a boost in their scam to supposedly represent African American feelings, values and beliefs when neither have been elected to anything! He should get what any other scam artist gets when they get caught in their hustles.

[jean22]

Well as an African American I and many others DO think Jesse and Sharpton have and still do in many instances represent our feelings, values and beliefs. Shady? What has he done in your mind to earn such a label? I appreciate EVERYONE who dares to stick his/her neck out and place their lives on the line to challenge injustice. I can't see how anyone who really values civil rights for ALL wouldn't.

[jaydeedub]

Get it together Rev Al.

[robXdion]

Why did he even run??? Is the limelight THAT irresistible?

[Haditup2here]

. . . .so he can top Jesse Jackson and even Tavis Smiley as the voice of black people. Remember when he was saying all those things about Howard Dean not having black people in his government when he knew d**n well there were not many black people in Vermont to begin with. Well, this was the same time he was secretly accepting money from the credit card of a republican operative of the GOP. I always had my suspicions about Sharpton, but that tidbit took the cake. He is as shady as they come.

[robXdion]

Thanks for the tip. That goat-rope after 2004 was so confusing I just ignored the details. Looks like he'll be joining Wesley and Ron Isley pretty soon.

[GeorgiamomforObama]

Damn!!