[MarignyBywater] thieves

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October 16, 2008Acorn Working on Deal to Sever Ties With Founder
By STEPHANIE STROM 
      Even as it battles charges offraudulent voter registration practices in several states, theAssociation of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, is negotiating to sever all ties with its founder, whose brother embezzled almost $1 million from the group.
 Two board members and Bertha Lewis, the organization’s interimchief organizer, or chief executive, met last week in New Orleans tohammer out a deal with the founder, Wade Rathke, according to boardmembers who learned Tuesday of the talks. Mr. Rathke resigned as chieforganizer after it became public this summer that his brother Dale hadembezzled almost $1 million from the organization eight years ago. 
 Mr. Rathke retained control of Acorn International, however, andmaintained its offices in buildings in New Orleans shared by Acorn andmany of its 174 affiliates. Foundations that support Acorn financially,as well as many of the 51 voting members of its board, have beencritical of that arrangement, saying it allows Mr. Rathke to retain hisinfluence over the organization.
The deal, as described by board members, would hand Mr. Rathkecontrol of the Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now, or WARN, an Acornaffiliate that focuses on what it considers to be unfair laborpractices and other issues at Wal-Mart, and a radio station in Texasthat is one of five media companies affiliated with Acorn, according toboard members critical of the negotiations.
Ms. Lewis said there was no such deal and described the meeting as “a discussion.”
“Not to cast aspersions on your sources, but they’re always a littlebit off,” she said. “We discussed about 60 different corporations. WARNcame up, Acorn International came up, but we didn’t even discuss theradio stations.”
She said the various options for divorcing Mr. Rathke from Acornwould be presented to the board at its next meeting, which startsFriday. Mr. Rathke did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment.
Some board members from a group of dissidents calling itself theAcorn 8 questioned the meeting. The group has demanded access tofinancial records and a forensic audit to review Acorn’s accounting andfinancial records during the period the embezzlement was covered up.
Two of its members, Marcel Reid and Karen Inman, who also sit on theinterim management committee that the board appointed to govern Acornafter the embezzlement scandal, filed a lawsuit in August seeking tobreak the Rathkes’ ties to the organization, as well as protectfinancial records from destruction and enhance board access todocuments. They said the negotiations with Mr. Rathke were an end runaround the board, a charge that Acorn has leveled against their lawsuit.
“I object to this, in part,” Ms. Inman said, “because the board wasnot told about these negotiations, but mainly because we have no ideawhat the assets held by those entities are because management hasrefused to do a forensic audit.” 
Ms. Lewis said the two board members involved in the talks wereassigned the task by the board’s executive committee, which is chargedwith making decisions between the board’s two annual meetings. 
Coya Mobley, one of the dissidents, still questioned theirparticipation. “The executive board is only supposed to act in theevent of an emergency, and this was not an emergency,” Ms. Mobley said.Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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