Freedom Alliance Concerts is a Scam Charity

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[pacos_gal]

For years now the Freedom Alliance has been putting on Concerts called Freedom Concerts assuring donors that money given will go as scholarships to soldiers and their children who have been wounded or died in fighting.
 
A conservative radio personality has done an indepth article on the supposed charity and found it to be a scam with less than 4% of proceeds actually going to where it should be going.  A charity is deemed to be reputable if at least 75% of it's proceeds go to the intended recipients.  This charity is utterly a scam and is in fact appalling.  Using wounded soldiers and their children to make millions of dollars that is then filtered to political cronies.  Disgusting!   Why isn't this getting national attention.

Who is right at the center of it?  Sean Hannity.  

Gryphen put a piece up about it today here and many thanks to him for finding it:
http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2010/03/sean-hannitys-freedom-alliance-charity.html

Debbie Schlussel's article is here:
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/6938/sean-hannitys-freedom-concert-scam-only-7-of-charitys-money-went-to-injured-troops-kids-of-fallen-troops-g5s-g6s-for-vannity/

For the last several years, Sean Hannity and the Freedom Alliance “charity” have conducted “Freedom Concerts” across America. They’ve told you that they are raising money to pay for the college tuition of the children of fallen soldiers and to pay severely wounded war vets.  And on Friday Night, Hannity will be honored with an award for this “Outstanding Community Service by a Radio Talk Show Host” at Talkers Magazine’s  convention.

But it’s all a huge scam.

I can't even begin to articulate how outraged I am by this faux charity.  


UPDATE:  MediaMatters has confirmed the numbers but is withholding an opinion till they know more based upon Debbie Schoussel's track record, which is admittedly not good.  However, that doesn't mean that she is wrong in this instance or that conservatives won't eat their own for breakfast if they think it will help them.  Who knows what her motivations are, the numbers are the numbers and I am still pissed.
Media Matters is looking at the Freedom Alliance as a whole, while I think that what Ms. Schlussel is speaking of is the Freedom Concerts in particular. 
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201003190002
 

[Jaime from Wasilla]

Ooooo goody! Another tsunami in the wing-nut crash-and-burn! 

pleeeze pleeze pleeze tell me he was using the profits to buy porn!

[daMamma]

Checking out the tax returns, that's just amazing.  All that money in and nearly all of it gone to waste.  That, to my mind, is nothing short of theft.  I have serious doubts any of the donors would have given a single penny towards this 'charity' (and I use that term very loosely!) if they knew next to none was going to to where they thought it was going to go.

[futurexpat?]

This one will be one worth watching closely.

[daMamma]

Would be very interesting to see this one hit all the mainstream media outlets.

[pacos_gal]

At the beginning of the day we had Debbie Schoussel with her article on Freedom Alliances Concert shinanigans.  

This was picked up by all sorts of liberal blogs and news outlets, however, only a couple conservative sites went with it.

Each of those have now backed down on the allegations.

The American Spectator - (back tracking post) http://spectator.org/blog/2010/03/19/hannitys-big-rip-off

In the original on The American Spectator, there was even a collaborative statement saying that Oliver North himself questioned Hannity about the expenditures.  They have now deleted the post and are instead posting updates refuting Schussels allegations. They have sited the statement by Freedom Alliance saying they did nothing wrong, haven't paid any of Hannity's expenses as just being "truth".

David Frum on Frum Forum - (original post)  http://www.frumforum.com/lets-get-hannitized

Furm Forum is now trying to show that each statement is in fact wrong that Schussel made.  In the comment section Ms. Schussel accuses Mr. Frum as receiving the Hannity threats that she has heard he's been making to others, saying:

So, Hannity got to David Frum like he did the rest of the conservatives that David claims he’s different from. So sad. I guess Hannity told David what I’ve heard he’s told others: that he’ll never be on FOX News again unless you run his side of the story and retract mine.

I fail to see how since David’s last post on this at 3:00 p.m., his site has suddenly did an “exhaustive investigation” in two hours. And that’s why Tim Mak is feverishly posting his “exhaustive investigation” piecemeal, b/c he’s still, um, “investigating.” My facts–all taken from their tax forms–cannot be refuted. You are likely regurgitating the Freedom Alliance CYA statement, which contains more lies and obfuscation but zero refutation.

(back tracking post) http://www.frumforum.com/hannitized-is-sanitized

Ms. Schussel makes a rebuttal statement in the update on her original post:
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/6938/sean-hannitys-freedom-concert-scam-only-7-of-charitys-money-went-to-injured-troops-kids-of-fallen-troops-g5s-g6s-for-vannity/
In her rebuttal one of the main figures she sites as trying to discredit her is none other than the recently hired by CNN blogger Eric Erickson.

One of the “prominent bloggers” who posted the phony response is Erick Erickson, a guy who supports Rand Paul and the other 9/11 Truther Paul, and who defended Emily, Zanotti, the lunatic who has been stalking me for four years and who praised Muslim death, rape, and torture threats against me and my family.  Yes, sadly, there are a growing number of anti-Semites on the right, and Erick Erickson is one of them.  And the anti-Semites are now the defenders of this rip off of our seriously wounded troops and the kids of our fallen heroes.

Since the 990's are available online it's not like any of this is secret and as daMamma said, just going through those tax returns shows they aren't exactly in the business of benefiting children of soldiers.  

I do not see on the forms where Hannity was paid personally, but then that is not to say that he isn't paid in some other way, through any of the companies paid for services, through original dollar amount from ticket sales, could be anything.  I won't accuse him personally without further evidence than just Ms. Schussel's word, however, the figures do show, that little of the total figures contributed go to children of soldiers so far. It is either badly managed, or it is a war chest for as Ms. Schussel says, a different reason.

And I still find it to be disgusting.  If you want to contribute to anyone, do so through reputable organizations that you have done some research on.  

I'm would also add that reading the comments on the above blog posts have been VERY interesting.

[Lani]

CREW, VoteVets File IRS, FTC Complaints Against Sean Hannity Charity Freedom Concerts http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/washington-watchdog-veter_n_517096.html

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleges that Hannity's Freedom Concerts has "engaged in deceptive and illegal marketing practices by suggesting that all concert ticket sale revenue goes directly to scholarships for children of killed and wounded service members."

CREW will host a joint press conference Monday with VoteVets.org discussing complaints with the IRS and the Federal Trade Commission about Freedom Concert, Freedom Alliance, and Lt. Col. Oliver North.

[daMamma]

It will be very interesting to see how he justifies less than 4% of the charity take actually went towards what the charity advertised it was for.  A far cry from the advertised 100% to charity too.