ACORN crime covered-up by Drummond Pike

Related Drummond Pike stories: here
Related Wade Rathke stories: here

Leftists display lack of transparency

"Keep your yaps shut." That's what people working for two left-wing groups were told when word started to filter out that the head of another benefactor of "progressive" causes was going to bail out one of the groups stung by an embezzlement scandal.

Drummond Pike, the founder and CEO of the Tides Foundation, agreed to buy a nearly $1 million promissory note from the family of Wade Rathke, founder and recent leader of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, reports The New York Times.

Wade Rathke sits on the Tides Foundation board. (And Pittsburgh's Heinz Endowments, chaired by ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, funded Tides with more than $8 million between 1994 and 2005.)

Mr. Rathke's brother, Dale, embezzled $948,507.50 from ACORN. The theft was discovered in 2000. Law enforcement never was notified. Instead, the Rathke family was allowed to work out a deal to repay the money. "That agreement was carried on the books of an affiliate, Citizens Consulting Inc. (CCI), as a loan to an officer," The Times says.

Last month, ACORN and CCI officials were told to "keep your yaps shut" about the dealings in a confidentiality memo, the newspaper says.

Which is quite an irony for a bunch of leftists who have been known to yap at others for their lack of transparency.

(pittsburghlive.com)