Records show civil rights activist Sharpton owes overdue taxes, other penalties

Saturday 10th May, 03:33 AM JST

NEW YORK —

Big corporations give him money. Presidential candidates seek his endorsement. He has influential friends in Congress and the New York governor’s mansion.

The Rev. Al Sharpton has emerged over the past decade as perhaps the most prominent U.S. civil rights leader, a status that was demonstrated again this week when he led protests against police brutality that briefly shut down six of Manhattan’s major bridges and tunnels.

But he still carries baggage from his early days as a fire-breathing agitator: Government records obtained by The Associated Press indicate that Sharpton and his business entities owe nearly $1.5 million in overdue taxes and associated penalties.

Now the U.S. attorney is investigating his nonprofit group, a probe that an undeterred Sharpton brushes off as the kind of annoyance that civil rights figures have come to expect from the government.

“Whatever retaliation they do on me, we never stop,” he told the AP. “I think that that is why they try to intimidate us.”

Over the past year, Sharpton’s lawyers and the staff of his nonprofit group, the National Action Network, have been negotiating with the federal government over the size of his debt, which they dispute. The group has also been trying to pay off tens of thousands of dollars it owes for failing to properly maintain payments to the state workers compensation and unemployment insurance funds.

Charlie King, the organization’s interim executive director, said both Sharpton and the group he leads were unprepared for their rise in stature in recent years and had trouble dealing with big jumps in donations and income.

“The infrastructure was trying to keep up with that pace, and it was not a perfect fit,” he told the AP on Friday. “The National Action Network may not have been perfect, but nothing was going on that was untoward.”

He said the organization has new accountants and a new administrative team, and the group recently finally filed long-overdue tax returns.

Sharpton’s own debts include $365,558 owed in New York City income tax and $931,397 in unpaid federal income tax, according to a lien filed by the Internal Revenue Service, the federal tax collection agency, last spring. His for-profit company, Rev. Al Communications, owes the state another $175,962 in delinquent taxes.

As for Sharpton’s personal tax debt, King said Sharpton has started paying it off but contends that faulty record-keeping by the National Action Network led the government to overestimate his tax liability.

Tax headaches are nothing new for Sharpton. The 53-year-old minister has been assailed over his career for running up big tax debts and failing to abide by rules governing his charities and election committees. He is perpetually being sued for failing to pay his bills.

In December, Sharpton revealed that as many as 10 of his associates had received grand jury subpoenas. A person familiar with the investigation told the AP that the FBI and IRS are probing whether Sharpton or his organization committed tax crimes or violations related to his 2004 presidential campaign, during which he was forced to return public matching funds for breaking fundraising rules.

If any of this worries Sharpton, you would never know it. He is pressing ahead with his latest campaign—an effort to persuade the Justice Department to bring civil rights charges against New York City police detectives who fired 50 shots and killed an unarmed groom as he left his bachelor party.

Over the past few weeks, Sharpton has kept a high profile, promising to lead weekly demonstrations until new charges are brought against police detectives acquitted of manslaughter April 25 in the November 2006 death of Sean Bell.

“He is as focused as ever,” said U.S. Rep Gregory W Meeks, who has also rallied for police reforms since the Bell case. “He is probably more effective now than he was in the past, than he has ever been.”

Sharpton was arrested and spent a few hours in jail Wednesday for being among the marchers who blocked the Brooklyn Bridge to protest the verdict.

On Thursday, Sharpton said he may soon add another cause—the case of three shooting suspects who appeared to have been beaten and kicked by police during an arrest in Philadelphia.

Sharpton has been investigated before, and always walked away clean.

In 1990, he was acquitted of tax fraud and charges that he stole from one of his charities. He followed that up with what was essentially another victory in a tax case by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to file a state return.

In the latest probe, the official overseeing the investigation is U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell—the same Brooklyn-based prosecutor whom Sharpton is urging to file criminal charges in the Bell shooting. Campbell’s office has said it is reviewing the case but declined to comment further.

Sharpton’s reputation has undergone a remarkable renaissance since the Tawana Brawley days in 1987, when he was accused of helping create a hoax in which a 15-year-old black girl claimed she had been kidnapped and raped by a gang of whites that included a police officer and a prosecutor. A grand jury concluded that Brawley made the story up.

Since the late 1990s, his civil rights group has grown from a small outfit, with a few hundred thousand dollars in annual revenue, to an organization that now routinely takes in $1 million to $2 million per year, thanks partly to corporate support.

Donors have included beer giant Anheuser-Busch and Forest City Ratner, a real estate development company that courted black leaders for support of a plan to build an NBA arena in Brooklyn. PepsiCo, for several years, gave Sharpton a compensated position on one of its advisory boards.

The group also enjoys financial support from the state’s top politicians—including New York Gov David Paterson; Rep Charles Rangel, a top Democrat in Congress, and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

“Everybody who runs for office in the Democratic Party wants to meet with him,” said former Mayor Ed Koch, who once battled Sharpton but now calls him a friend and a “bona fide leader.”

Koch said Sharpton’s past will always be an issue with some whites, and he disagreed with the decision to engage in civil disobedience over the Bell case. But the former mayor believes the respect Sharpton enjoys among blacks is well earned.

“He is willing to go to jail for them,” Koch said. “And he is there when they need him.”

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AP researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

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On the Web:

The National Action Network: http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/

11 Comments

DenshaDeGO at 10:15 AM JST - 10th May

I'm rooting for the government on this one. I hope they put him away.
Everton2 at 10:49 AM JST - 10th May

Yes sure, Martin Luther King had the same allegations made against him. Not that i am comparing these two individuals. These allegations have surfaced before, being around for the last few years and have amounted to zero. It is just that the US Government has had a history of seeking tax evasion indictments against those who go against the grain. It has been a potent weapon in silencing those they believe are not in sink with the status quo. Today those accused under these circumstances are better equipped to fight these allegations, so I predict the investigation will go nowhere, its all nose drip!
skipthesong at 11:38 AM JST - 10th May

There is nothing that is gonna put Al in jail.. no matter what he does.

Everton, I can see you looking up to him.
nucular at 11:49 AM JST - 10th May

"It is just that the US Government has had a history of seeking tax evasion indictments against those who go against the grain. It has been a potent weapon in silencing those they believe are not in sink with the status quo. "

If you actually knew anything about America you'd know that Big Al's time as a "threat to the system" has pretty much passed.
skipthesong at 12:02 PM JST - 10th May

maybe he was saving the cash for a new hair style.
Nessie at 12:58 PM JST - 10th May

The group has also been trying to pay off tens of thousands of dollars it owes for failing to properly maintain payments to the state workers compensation and unemployment insurance funds.

Al Sharpton, the champion of the underdog.
skipthesong at 01:43 PM JST - 10th May

If you actually knew anything about America you'd know that Big Al's time as a "threat to the system" has pretty much passed." If you actually knew anything about NYC, you'd know that Big Al's time was more of a joke to the system, a head ache. But, That's what he "well, that’s my job! That’s what I’m supposed to do. If I could not get the public’s attention on an issue, then I’m not a good activist."

This man has cause a fiasco with the Tawana Brawly case - perjury for the most part, incited the killing of a Hisidic kid in Crown Hieghts, helped ignite a fire to a Jewish owned store which was asked by its property owner, a black church, to evict a black owned sub-tenent record shop. All in the protest of evicting the black owned sub tenant, which mind you was requested by the church itself.

All these and still had the nerve to run for office!

And lastly, "On October 9, 2007, Whoopi Goldberg suggested on her television show, The View, that Sharpton owed the lacrosse players an apology." Now, who can dispute Whoopi? She should be the one running for a nomination.
smithinjapan at 03:15 PM JST - 10th May

Get paying, Sharpton!

I agree that pointing out publicly Sharpton's failure to pay owing debt at the exact same time he is causing public disturbances and failing to tow the party line are merely smear tactics, but the man SHOULD pay when he can. Beyond that, I agree with skip... this will stop nothing.
Everton2 at 05:22 PM JST - 10th May

skipthesong- man you are mean, I don't look up to Al. Maybe i would if he got a better hair cut and pursue more exhaustive investigation of the facts before laying siege to organizations and individuals' reputation. His tactic leaves a lot to be desired, they are in your face and down right of the hood. But he sometimes gets it right and those are the ones that sustains his apparent effectiveness.

He has a radio show with a large following, the demographics being mainly poor and disaffected blacks who are essentially powerless to mount any effective challenge to what they may see as an injustice. Al provides that outlet for their expression albeit crude, tacky or Watever, but thats all they have. Who do you want these people to turn to, Sean Hannity?
skipthesong at 05:50 PM JST - 10th May

He has a radio show with a large following" I know, I listened to it.

Hey, don't get me wrong, Al has a fight, whether you agree with it or not, and he does garner a lot of attention to the issue, even the fabricated ones. But that's what is for..

Again, if I had never lived in NYC, his home base and learned of those controversies around him, I probably wouldn't look at him the way I do..

I really wish though, with his power, he did take the issues that are hard core and once in while picked up the issue on behalf of a white or Hispanic guy once in a while.

FYI: I have seen nor heard anything from Hannity. I only caught it once playing at the office big screen here and only a clip. I don't know which one is which (2 I think)
adaydream at 04:48 AM JST - 11th May

Al Sharpton has been very contreversal (sp) I agree. And in some instances, and I'm sure there are those here who can rattle those times off where he's been way off base. But somebody has to be the voice of doubt or complaint.

Don't label me an Al Sparpton follower, but without men like Al Sharpton, many people would just get walked over.

No he's not as elequaint as MLK, but he's a voice.

Tax irregularities, maybe so. But I remember a vice president who resigned for that very reason.