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Authorities to investigate Jay Sekulow nonprofit after 'troubling' revelations
Authorities in two states are looking into a nonprofit led by an attorney to Donald Trump, after the Guardian reported it had steered tens of millions of dollars to the attorney, his family and their businesses.
Josh Stein, the attorney general of North Carolina, and Eric Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, said on Wednesday they would be examining the operations of Jay Sekulow’s group Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (Case).
Stein said in a statement: “The reports I’ve read are troubling. My office is looking into this matter.”
Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for Schneiderman, said in an email: “We’re reviewing their filings.”
The Democratic state law enforcement officials acted following the disclosure that Case and an affiliate have since 2000 paid more than $60m in compensation and contracts to Sekulow, his relatives and companies where they hold senior roles.
Nonprofits are forbidden by law from giving excess benefits to the people responsible for running them. Case’s board is dominated by Sekulow and his family. The group is registered with state authorities to operate and raise funds in 39 states plus Washington DC, according to its last available IRS filing. It is closely entwined with American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), another Sekulow nonprofit.
...
That year, Sekulow’s not-for-profit groups paid him and three companies where he held leading roles $4.8m in compensation and contracts. His brother, Gary, received a pay package totalling $848,649 for being chief financial officer and chief operating officer. A production company owned by Gary’s wife, Pam, was paid $677,300 in contracts. Gary and Pam’s son, Adam, received $237,295 as director of development. Another $139,529 in compensation was shared by Jay Sekulow’s wife, the secretary of the not-for-profit groups, and their two sons, who were directors.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...-sekulow-obamacare-repeal-christian-nonprofit
Seems like a nice family run charity scam. This guy is Trump's lead lawyer now.
MAGA - Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
And for just a taste of what this guy's telemarketing sales pitch sounded like -
Telemarketers for Case have over the years delivered frightening warnings about a variety of issues, depicting Christians in the US as under siege from both Muslim terrorists and a liberal political elite led by a president supposedly desperate to increase the national abortion rate.
“Islamic extremists are headed in your direction, and you are most likely the main target,” Sekulow himself told people in a recorded message used in fundraising calls during 2011. Telemarketers were instructed to tell people who initially said they could not donate that Islamist extremists “will succeed if we don’t do something RIGHT AWAY.” If the person resisted a second time, the script said to tell them: “It sounds like you really WANT to help.”
In 2010, the Case fundraisers were given a special script to deal with people who declined to donate because they were contributing to relief efforts following that year’s deadly earthquake in Haiti. Fundraisers were told to say that while the Haiti disaster was “a terrible tragedy”, some people were managing to give money to Sekulow’s not-for-profit group as well. The person on the line was told that doing so would mean “protecting your family”.
People receiving calls in 2010 who declined to donate on the grounds that they could generally not afford to contribute were told by telemarketers: “I wouldn’t call if this weren’t an absolute emergency,” and that abortions would be funded by Obamacare. “Just in the time that we’ve talked, three more innocent babies have lost their lives,” said the marketers’ script.If still resistant to donating, people were to be told: “Millions of lives may be at stake.”
Case’s marketing callers have focused on grim stories about abortion year after year. People who initially resisted a request to donate money in 2012 were told: “Unbelievably, through Obamacare, Planned Parenthood could run a healthcare clinic in your child’s or grandchild’s middle school or high school and receive federal tax dollars to do it”.
Authorities in two states are looking into a nonprofit led by an attorney to Donald Trump, after the Guardian reported it had steered tens of millions of dollars to the attorney, his family and their businesses.
Josh Stein, the attorney general of North Carolina, and Eric Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, said on Wednesday they would be examining the operations of Jay Sekulow’s group Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (Case).
Stein said in a statement: “The reports I’ve read are troubling. My office is looking into this matter.”
Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for Schneiderman, said in an email: “We’re reviewing their filings.”
The Democratic state law enforcement officials acted following the disclosure that Case and an affiliate have since 2000 paid more than $60m in compensation and contracts to Sekulow, his relatives and companies where they hold senior roles.
Nonprofits are forbidden by law from giving excess benefits to the people responsible for running them. Case’s board is dominated by Sekulow and his family. The group is registered with state authorities to operate and raise funds in 39 states plus Washington DC, according to its last available IRS filing. It is closely entwined with American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), another Sekulow nonprofit.
...
That year, Sekulow’s not-for-profit groups paid him and three companies where he held leading roles $4.8m in compensation and contracts. His brother, Gary, received a pay package totalling $848,649 for being chief financial officer and chief operating officer. A production company owned by Gary’s wife, Pam, was paid $677,300 in contracts. Gary and Pam’s son, Adam, received $237,295 as director of development. Another $139,529 in compensation was shared by Jay Sekulow’s wife, the secretary of the not-for-profit groups, and their two sons, who were directors.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...-sekulow-obamacare-repeal-christian-nonprofit
MAGA - Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
And for just a taste of what this guy's telemarketing sales pitch sounded like -
Telemarketers for Case have over the years delivered frightening warnings about a variety of issues, depicting Christians in the US as under siege from both Muslim terrorists and a liberal political elite led by a president supposedly desperate to increase the national abortion rate.
“Islamic extremists are headed in your direction, and you are most likely the main target,” Sekulow himself told people in a recorded message used in fundraising calls during 2011. Telemarketers were instructed to tell people who initially said they could not donate that Islamist extremists “will succeed if we don’t do something RIGHT AWAY.” If the person resisted a second time, the script said to tell them: “It sounds like you really WANT to help.”
In 2010, the Case fundraisers were given a special script to deal with people who declined to donate because they were contributing to relief efforts following that year’s deadly earthquake in Haiti. Fundraisers were told to say that while the Haiti disaster was “a terrible tragedy”, some people were managing to give money to Sekulow’s not-for-profit group as well. The person on the line was told that doing so would mean “protecting your family”.
People receiving calls in 2010 who declined to donate on the grounds that they could generally not afford to contribute were told by telemarketers: “I wouldn’t call if this weren’t an absolute emergency,” and that abortions would be funded by Obamacare. “Just in the time that we’ve talked, three more innocent babies have lost their lives,” said the marketers’ script.If still resistant to donating, people were to be told: “Millions of lives may be at stake.”
Case’s marketing callers have focused on grim stories about abortion year after year. People who initially resisted a request to donate money in 2012 were told: “Unbelievably, through Obamacare, Planned Parenthood could run a healthcare clinic in your child’s or grandchild’s middle school or high school and receive federal tax dollars to do it”.
