Whitaker was paid 1.2 million as only employee of mysterious nonprofit

[Demovictory9]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/conservative-nonprofit-with-obscure-roots-and-undisclosed-funders-paid-matthew-whitaker-12-million/2018/11/20/25ff987e-e9db-11e8-bd89-eecf3b178206_story.html?utm_term=.501d49c7d437

In the three years after he arrived in Washington in 2014, Matthew G. Whitaker received more than $1.2 million as the leader of a charity that reported having no other employees, some of the best pay of his career.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust described itself as a new watchdog nonprofit dedicated to exposing unethical conduct by public officials. For Whitaker, it became a lucrative steppingstone in a swift rise from a modest law practice in Iowa to the nation’s top law enforcement job. As FACT’s president, he regularly appeared on radio and television, often to skewer liberals.

But FACT’s origins and the source of funding used to pay Whitaker — now the acting attorney general — remain obscured. An examination of state and federal records, and interviews with those involved, show that the group is part of a national network of nonprofits that often work in concert to amplify conservative messages.

Contrary to its claims in news releases and a tax filing, the group was created under a different name two years before Whitaker’s arrival, according to incorporation and IRS records. At least two of the organizers were involved in another conservative charity using the same address.

In its application to the IRS for status as a tax-exempt organization, the organizers reported that the group would study the impact of environmental regulations on businesses, records show. In that incarnation, the group took no action and “only existed on paper,” one man named in IRS filings as a board member told The Washington Post. Another named in a state filing as a board member said he never agreed to be on the board.

[Botany]

1. Russian money?

n/t

[JHB]

10. Or ye olde Wingnut Welfare.

[SweetieD]

2. A charity?

[RockRaven]

3. Sounds like tax fraud; tax filings contained false information (board member never agreed to be one)

Lock him up!

[SHRED]

4. He's gonna be up "Schiff's Creek" soon I hope

[dalton99a]

5. Whitaker is dirty as shit

[AJT]

6. Money laundering?

[Mr. Quackers]

7. Yep

NPOs as money-laundering fronts . . .

[oasis]

8. Drain th swamp. Jail the GOP rats.

[Achilleaze]

9. Maybe Whitaker was researching toilets for underendowed republicans?

I mean, that seems to be the kind of stupid shit republicans are fixated on.

[Hortensis]

11. FACT president: A phony credential to introduce him to audiences

on talk shows, etcetera? That's speculation I heard -- from I think Rachel -- when he was first appointed.

Like all his better schticks, the ones that rise above huckstering and scamming, this man was apparently turned into a talk show figure by people who decided he was their kind of guy and could be useful. Wonder if they had an appointment to a judicial seat in mind next...