Most of the detail has already been presented in my article, “Is the Cold Case Posse a Charity?” The Maricopa County Sheriffs Cold Case Posse, Inc. (MCSOCCP) is designated a 501(c)(3) exempt organization (a charity that doesn’t pay taxes and who can accept tax-deductible contributions). Generally such organizations are required to file reports of their expenditures with the IRS on Form 990.
There is a reporting exemption for organizations that are “affiliates of governmental units” under the presumption that the governmental unit keeps tabs on their financial activities, and GuideStar (a source of information on non-profits) says that the MCSOCCP claims such an exemption; however, the MCSOCCP does not qualify for the exemption based on IRS criteria unless the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office provides financial management or financial oversight of the Posse. The missing piece of evidence of illegal activity (failure to file Form 990) that I alluded to in a comment yesterday is a letter from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office indicating that there is no financial management or oversight by the Sheriff’s Office of its Cold Case Posse. Here’s the letter:
I filed a referral with the IRS this morning. By law, the IRS cannot provide any status information about such referrals beyond acknowledgment of receipt. The Cold Case Posse is also “not in good standing” with the State of Arizona for failure to file a report due last June (not a financial report).
The problem here, and the reason that I filed the referral, is that the Cold Case Posse, while claiming a government tax exemption, does not report its expenditures as required by law: It doesn’t report them to the Sheriff’s Office, it doesn’t report them to the Arizona Secretary of State, and it doesn’t report them to the IRS.
Update:
I looked on an additional web site, 501c3lookup.org, and the way I interpret that information, it appears that the IRS considers the Cold Case Posse an instrumentality of a state or political subdivision. (The material I presented to the IRS would demonstrate that this classification is not applicable to the Cold Case Posse.)
When applying to the IRS, one of the questions on the application for exemption form (Form 1023) is: Are you affiliated with a governmental unit? Besides an indication that an explanation should be provided for a “Yes” answer, there aren’t any specific questions for determining whether or not the applicant qualifies as a governmental unit. If the MCSOCCP has indeed a determination from the IRS that it is a governmental unit, and the IRS did its job correctly, and I correctly understand the criteria, one would conclude that the MCSOCCP misrepresented itself to the IRS or that it operates in a materially different way from when it was chartered.
By law an exempt organization is required to provide a copy of Form 1023 upon request and I requested this from the Cold Case Posse in a letter sent by certified mail, but of course the Cold Case Posse doesn’t claim its certified mail.
this makes you seem worried about what they are doing doc. maybe you’ll get a reward, which you can use for this site. either way, it’s good to see you engaged.
I would say “suspicious” rather than “worried.” But the reason I filed the complaint was to get what should be public information so I can publish it. This is a fact checking and information web site. It’s what I do.
Another IRS complaint was filed by someone else alleging that the CCP did misuse charitable funds, and that one might garner a reward. I would not expect a reward from mine.
Doc quote:
“The problem here, and the reason that I filed the referral, is that the Cold Case Posse, while claiming a government tax exemption, does not report its expenditures as required by law: It doesn’t report them to the Sheriff’s Office, it doesn’t report them to the Arizona Secretary of State, and it doesn’t report them to the IRS.”
Amazing isn’t it?
Man o man, what a great scam! Got Sheriff protection from any kind of investigation, no accounting of where the money is coming from and where it is going, a group of victims just waiting to be robbed, and a bunch of gullible believers who act as recruiters and co-conspirators. Wonder how I can get a cut of this?
This is the first complaint I’ve filed, and I think that it is appropriate. There are all sorts of things birthers do that I would consider illegal, but I am not directly affected. I think that some of the birther attorneys have done things that are unethical, but not directly against me. However, as a publisher of a blog, the unavailability of information that is by all rights public, and that I would routinely publish if I had it, does affect me directly, and makes me the person who should file the complaint.
It’s your used car salesman pal Mike Zullo who should be worried.
You’re not concerned that Zullo may be doing something improper, possibly illegal?
Are you going to ask him about this?
Truth is it affects all of us if this man is misusing a tax subsidized (that’s what a tax exemption is) organization improperly or illegally.
Nice work, Doc!
You aren’t concerned that the local Sheriff may be acting in concert with Zullo to aid and abet criminal activity Scott?
good for you.
I am pleased that people are going to be indicted for wrongdoing as a result of the CCCP Investigation.
(See what I did there)
Kudoes to you, Doc. Pull out the weeds.
If only the California Bar could somehow take Orly’s license away.
No, I don’t see–hey, wait a minute! I think you’re implying that MIKE ZULLO will be indicted and NOT Nobama! And, hold on . . . you abbreviated the name of the Cold Case Posse so that it reads like the initials for the Soviet Union!!!
Typical sawlinsky tactics. I don’t know what sawlinsky tactics are, but I hear my birther friends saying it about Obots, so I know it must be BAD!
Scott and John are probably wetting themselves as we speak.
Sawlinsky? Wasn’t that Dan Akroyd’s character in Tommy Boy?
Yes we know that the law doesn’t seem to matter to you.
About as much as any birther bigot cared about any other Presidential candidate’s birth certificate.
This IRS information needs to be brought to the attention of the Phoenix news media. And the CCP wants to hold Obama accountable? Are they serious? How are their donations really being used?
I heard on the radio that Zullo is going on tour to speak to Tea Party groups (more fund raising?) He should be easy to find to get some questions answered. Just look to Carl Gallups for the schedule of future meetings.
Oh, I’m sure they make regular financial reports to World Net Daily and Joseph Farah.
I’m sure links to Doc’s material will be showing up in Phoenix reporter’s mailboxes soon enough.
As far as a Tea Party tour is concerned….what other reason could there be than to continue to milk the birther cow?
The President will be in Phoenix today. Any money on the chances of Zullo doing anything while he’s there?
And your response makes it seem you don’t care that birthers are inveterate law breakers.
Getting arrested for fraud would be a nice late birthday present for the President.
the birthers will go absolutely ape-spit with “obama is using the IRS to target patriot groups!!!” if they do reprimand and/or fine the CCP.
should get fun to watch.
Only in the birthers most turgid fantasy.
It wasn’t clear I meant Zullo getting arrested for fraud? Bummer! Arpaio getting charged as an accessory would be the icing on the cake! 😀
Ah, that makes me turgid…..metaphorically speaking, of course.
I just found this website: I must say that I have never before seen such an array of Obamaholes! I’m impressed.
Did you make sure the you filed you complaint against the CCP directly with Lois Lerner?
This makes you seem like you’re desperate to characterize a fact-finding action against an opaque organization purporting to be a combination charity/crimefighting superpower as some kind of coverup of its own, or even a for-profit activity.
But I’m sure that can’t be your intent.
A couple of thoughts:
1. So after all these years of Obots asking, “Give us just one example of records being sealed,” we finally have one.
2. String ’em up for apostrophe abuse!
The silence is deafening!
Late afternoon eastern time and a quick check of regular birther websites that I’m familiar with fails to find a mention of this story. I wonder why?
Has anyone seen it anywhere?
They’re realizing now that Zullo has been scamming them all along and keeping most of the donations for himself.
Arizona property taxes aren’t going to pay for themselves.
Zullo and Gallups are requesting that everyone write letters ( not emails ) to get Congressman Stockman’s attention regarding the introduction of a so called presidential fraud bill. Doc, are you going to send a copy of your complaint to Congressman Stockman? Zullo insists it must be sent as a paper communication by the postal service because it will receive more attention than emails, faxes, skywriting or anything else.
Zullo also was soliciting financial donations for Congressman Stockman on the radio broadcast with Gallups (see link). This would appear to be an additional violation of the non-profit CCP articles of incorporation which forbids the CCP from campaigning for a polical candidate.
http://www.westernjournalism.com/mike-zullo-on-rep-stockmans-impending-fraud-bill/
Their agenda is not the truth.
I don’t see that as a problem. Poruchik Mikhail Zullov as a person can say whatever he wants. If he adds a donation link like this to the CCP web site, that would be a problem–but I don’t think Zullov is that arrogant.
Great! I’ll give my Congressman a quick e-mail and have him warn the Congressional Post Office to be on the look-out (smell-out?) for the stench of birther mail. Should only need to quarantine them for 3 years or so.
Good idea by Zullo, if the bs he calls evidence isn’t enough to convince them, try bribery.
Nancy Owens Barger posted a link to Doc’s story on ORYR four hours ago in the Obama birthday thread.
http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2013/08/vanity-fair-obama-celebrates-52nd.html#idc-cover
Any day now.
So what does she hope to accomplish by reposting that?
Nancy is an amusing on. She’s too nuts for the other birthers. Even Falcon can’t stand her. Its priceless really.
I guess she got tired of spamming her nonsense everywhere
You sicced the IRS on ’em!
Next thing you know the crazy birfoons will be calling you a RAT !
ha ha.
Due to no raised seal, too many layers and halos around most of the characters in the letter, Zullo, the Supreme Commander of the CCCP, will ask Hayes to exam it and render his opinion.
What’s he going to opine on besides the signature? He’s a graphologist
I can tell you why those halos appear and why they are totally software generated by the viewing program. Can Zullo?
Between the CCCP and MCSO and WND, where oh where to begin???
So, MCSO endorses the heck out of the CCCP (at least while there’s an election on), granting them … uh …. “moral authority” …. to the point of admitting they bankrolled a Hawaii vacation with public funds … but hey, don’t worry about the sale of public law enforcements assets to private interests (“We swear the donations are rolling in to reimburse even now!”) … but now disavows any financial oversight? Sooo, funds were inappropriately offloaded into a black hole? How would MCSO know when it had been “reimbursed” had that scheme been allowed to continue?
And MCSO has no financial oversight of its longstanding Cold Case Posse? Yeah right. This organization wasn’t invented for birtherism, just badly misdirected by it.
MCSO is responsible for its “posses”. It was sanctioned in court for failing to properly train volunteers, and letting poorly trained volunteers go over the line as to what was appropriate for volunteers. To put it mildly.
It wouldn’t surprise me if 1) the CCCP (or at least the Zullo fronted activities) had no recordkeeping at all; or 2) this is simple stonewalling, and whatever records that do exist (say, records of funds going from MCSO to CCCP) would be very inconvenient if released.
Bottom line: at minimum, MCSO is admitting they mishandle public funds.
What does the audience member at a magic show see? What the magician directs them to see. Granted, Hayes is probably qualified only to opine on whether a signature is genuine or not, but that has never stopped a birther from claiming an opinion beyond their expertise.
Try to put yourself in Hayes’ shoes. I think that we sometimes don’t realize how intuitive the birther’s document forgery argument is. I go back to the video JPotter linked to earlier:
http://www.usatoday.com/video/computer-expert-examines-arpaio-birther-documents/1484305946001
Here we have the CEO of Data Doctors Computer Services & Data Forensics Labs saying in a news interview that he listened to the first Cold Case Posse press conference and:
We’ve been eating and breathing this stuff for over 2 years, but you have to remember how much debunking work went on between April of 2011 and today when we’ve pinned down the hardware and software involved in making the PDF and sewn up the birther anomalies. Without hearing the other side, without knowing arcane details about scanning and PDFs, the Cold Case Posse argument is very compelling. Hayes could have fallen for the Zullo misdirection hard, so hard that he’s thinking their results are obvious to anyone, and he can use his expert credentials beyond his expertise to jump to Zullo’s misdirected conclusion.
He has a theory.
Well, I was attempting to link to comments re: CEO of Xerox that happened to be on an article that contained a video you were looking for. Happy to be of service!
What struck me about that video, was, while the statement given was very bumbling and non-technical (had me yelling at the screen), it did highlight the incredible stupidity of the CCCP case (“A scan is a scan is a scan, all scans are the same, any scan structured differently than what grandma gets on her $49 Canon when she scans her cat pics into Microsoft PictureThis!™ must be FRAUD!“), and demonstrate that if anyone with a bit of objectivity lifts a finger to test the CCCP’s claims, it falls apart.
The sweetest bit was the statement of obvious part: the CCCCP were likely testing on consumer grade setup in Mom’s basement, when in reality, legal documents are going to be scanned on office equipment. And scanned as a document (scanned as a Portable Document Format file) rather than as a photo (“single-layer” JPEGs like grandma gets). Y’know, on an “industrial scanner” …. like a Xerox.
Yup.
How sweet it would have been if Mr. Colburn had actually dropped an ‘X’ bomb in his comments LOL.
On July 8, 2013, in the WorldTribune.com they reported “Lt. Zullo” said, “I am working on this 24/7.” By his own words he is devoting 100% of his time to his claimed 100% forgery. His radio statements made soliciting funds and support for Congressman Stockman while giving updates about his 24/7 investigation still raises the question, was he speaking for himself or the CCP?
“Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.”
Hyperbole.
Check.
This article has been updated.
The IRS shows them as Maracopa County Sheriff’s Cold Case Posse Inc. Yes someone misspelled Maricopa. The Arizona Corporation Commission shows The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Posse Inc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPplDPm2m4Y
ORYR is reporting this story with their own particular spin on it. They say:
Dragnet?!?
Someone’s been watching too much Nick at Night again!
@JPotter
Dragnet is perfect! We can tell the birthers “Just the facts, ma’am.”
They’re going crazy in Birtherstan!!
And some predictable replies.
If only these lying, angry bigots could harness the energy from their hatred, they could power a small town for months.
That little Falcon character must be compensating for a lack in size.
Poo will be flung.
Not to Falcon, but to another of his tribe at ORYR, I commented:
Does your mama know you talk like that?
Those ORYR folks seem to be preoccupied with explicit homosexual imagery. I’ve never run across that kind of writing or speech anywhere else.
You will find the occasional birther or run-of-the-mill RWNJ making similar statements on other websites, but indeed it seems prevalent on ORYR. Maybe it’s simply because other birther site owners are less tolerant of such language. Maybe it’s because a couple of the most vocal ORYR accounts are sock puppets. (E.g. I believe that “julio schwartz” and “Uncle Sam” and “Moochelle” are the same person, based mostly on their unique trait of loving to post in fake ebonics every now and then.)
Maybe that’s what birthers mean when they always talk about “when sh.. hits the fan” – how ironic! 😉
polluting the comments section at the free republic observation post freeper madness is a dedicated troll (or trolls) that defaces each discussion with gratuitous insults of the scatological homophobic incest variety. given its (their) persistence, one wonders if the purpose is to drive away followers, get the site shut down or flagged as pornographic or browbeat the blog owner into abandoning it. it is a strange obsession over one tiny blog in the internet ocean.
to his credit the owner has not banned it (them). the troll(s) does as much to discredit freepers as the featured articles do.
Prison? Don’t drop the soap! 😀
Me thinks they are projecting.
When I first read this, I thought you said, “defecates each discussion.” Either way makes sense.
They are as nasty as they are blind. A real unpleasant bunch.
Well birtherism and fecal matter are related.
bm = birfer movement
The difference between the two, is that actual bm accomplishes something.
This might get interesting:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3052501/posts#17
To: Bubba Ho-Tep
I just sent them [CCP] a request asking for an e-copy of their most recently filed 990. I will reward them with a donation assuming a positive response.
21 posted on Thursday, August 08, 2013 2:00:33 PM by bluetick (If you’re going to err, err on the side of liberty.)
gorefan:
thanks for the link
i love the “To: Ray76” comment
22 posted on Thu Aug 8 21:23:28 2013 by Rodamala
(i would have used more colors)