Press Releases

IRS MUST FOLLOW TRAIL ON NONPROFITS TIED TO ABRAMOFF

Washington, D.C. - The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) calls on the IRS to further investigate the alleged involvement of five nonprofit organizations in Jack Abramoff's illegal lobbying activities.  The recent report by the Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee pointed to correspondence between Abramoff and these organizations showing how the lobbyist routed money from his clients to the groups in exchange for producing newspaper op-ed articles that favored his client's positions.

"It is important that the IRS looks into these allegations to determine if any of these organizations are guilty of breaking the law, and appropriately penalize those that did. Philanthropic organizations and nonprofits have a special responsibility to uphold standards of accountability," said Mary M. Lassen, NCRP's interim executive director. "This is an opportunity for the IRS to demonstrate that it is serious about holding tax-exempt organizations accountable, no matter the people or the politics surrounding each case."

Since 2004, NCRP has detailed and denounced the variety of Abramoff's misuses of philanthropy, particularly the illegal grantmaking of his Capital Athletics Foundation (CAF). NCRP repeatedly called for IRS investigations, but even when Abramoff's indictment and subsequent plea agreement in January 2006 acknowledged the repeated abuse of CAF, the IRS failed to step in.

According to information published on the GuideStar web site, CAF seeks to support "programs and activities that develop sportsmanship, particularly for disadvantaged populations." The foundation received over $6 million in contributions - mostly from Indian tribes that Abramoff represented - in the space of four years; less than one percent of this amount was spent on related sports programs for the youth.  The majority of CAF's grants went to support the Eshkol Academy, an Orthodox Jewish private school in Maryland that Abramoff established in 2002 and which closed its doors in 2004.

A Washington Post article in 2004 cited emails from Abramoff describing Eshkol as a "front group," and a reminder for his friend Michael Scanlon, former spokesman for Tom Delay and owner of the public relations firm where Abramoff would direct his