It looks like Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is on track to win another endorsement from ACORN!
This week, Hynes announced that “no criminality has been found” after his investigation of the videotapes made by investigative journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, which show ACORN employees counseling the pair on getting a mortgage for a house of prostitution.
(They got a choice of government loans: Phat Fannie Mae, Prince Freddie Mac or Barney Fresh Daddy Frank … aka “Sir Fix-A-Lot.”)

I’m just glad to know that Hynes conducted a thorough “investigation” first. Who did he have screen the videotapes, Gov. Paterson?
If his investigators had actually watched the videotapes, they would have found ACORN employees apparently advising a pimp and prostitute on how to defraud mortgage lenders, deposit prostitution money in a bank, hide money from the government and avoid detection while running a whorehouse with teenage girls from El Salvador.
I’m not a lawyer — oh, wait, yes, I am — but I count approximately a half-dozen state law crimes being discussed on those tapes, from money laundering to advancing prostitution.
In a “Eureka” moment, ACORN Employee-of-the-Month Volda Albert identifies for O’Keefe and Giles the problem they had been having getting a mortgage:
Albert: Um, is it legalized? Is prostitution legalized in New York state?
O’Keefe: It’s not. It’s not, unfortunately.
Albert: Well see, that’s your problem.
As ACORN employee Milagros Rivera said, “You can’t say what you do for a living because of the law.” But displaying ACORN’s can-do attitude, she explained: “Honest is not going to get you a house.”
ACORN employees helped concoct a scheme to hide from the lender the source of O’Keefe and Giles’ down payment money. Albert suggested that O’Keefe “pay a down payment — or (Giles) can transfer to somebody else, who is not in that business … a close friend, then (Giles) can transfer that, and then he can give you, like, a gift to purchase.”
Under New York law, hiding the true source of down payment money from a lender constitutes mortgage fraud. Also, using the proceeds of criminal conduct in any banking transaction is money laundering.
Does anybody need a flow chart at this point, or should I continue?
To help Giles hide her income from turning tricks, ACORN employee Albert advised Giles to open two banking accounts, depositing no more than $500 per week in each one. (This would not only enable her to conceal her illegal earnings, it would also qualify her for free checking.)
But Albert’s most inspired idea was that Giles get a “house with a backyard. You get a tin can … and bury (your money) down in there, and you put the money right in, and you put grass over it, and you don’t tell a single soul but yourself where it is.”
Back when I was in Louisiana, we advised people to put their illegal money in the freezer, but that didn’t work out so well. And I guess putting your money in a mattress isn’t advisable if you live in a whorehouse.
Anyway, Albert was particularly detailed on the tin-can-in-the-backyard investment plan: “Keep thinking: ‘I have a yard. I have a house.’ You gotta start coming out with, like, plants and you start doing — so it won’t be suspicious. You start buying plants for the backyard in pots and what have you, and you mark a spot.”
She later told Giles: “You are not paying Social Security, so you’ll have society, all right? You are not getting a pension, so you need to save that money for in later years.” ACORN: Helping Plan Your Financial Future.
If only shady lawyers advised clients to bury money in cans in their backyards, instead of putting it in tax shelters, we wouldn’t have all those attorneys clogging up prison cells!
The ACORN employees also stressed that Giles should do nothing to attract attention to her prostitution money. Albert said: “You can buy a decent car for yourself, no big fancy thing to attract people, all right?”
In Albert’s defense, this could have been common etiquette advice. No one likes a showy hooker.
Even after Giles explained her plan to house a “slew” of 13-, 14- and 15-year-old girls from El Salvador for her prostitution business, Rivera simply responded: “So you guys ready to schedule that (mortgage application) for the summer?”
Rivera clearly missed her calling — she should be pushing vacation time shares in Boca Raton beach condos.
Under New York law, a person is guilty of advancing prostitution if he: “knowingly … aids a person to commit or engage in prostitution (or) … engages in any other conduct designed to institute, aid or facilitate an act or enterprise of prostitution.”
It is a class D felony (up to seven years in prison) if the prostitute is under 19 years old — as the ACORN employees knew Giles was — and a class C felony (up to 15 years in prison) if the prostitute is under 16 years old — as Giles stated the El Salvadoran girls were. (And if she’s under 15 years old, Eliot Spitzer may be involved.)
If none of the advice given by ACORN on those videotapes constitutes conspiracy or aiding or abetting a crime, see this column next week for my opus: “10 Detailed Plans to Kill George Soros and Why This Might Be Right for You.”






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287 Comments
Too funny. Love the humor here Ann but the libertarian in me has to disagree with your analysis. Unless these ACORN folks actually helped them fill out the mortgage papers or handle "hooker" money, they were simply talking. Yes, we can call it aiding and abeting but they did not actually commit any crime, they simply discussed how to do it. If I were to advise someone how to rob a bank and they never robbed a bank, did I commit some crime? I think not. Even if I did advise someone and they did rob the bank, I still did not commit the crime unless I of course, shared in the profit of the crime. I despise ACORN as much as the next right thinking guy but I don't want to blurr the line for personal satisfaction.
So, is that how it works when a cop poses as a prostitute and offers sex for money?
Can you just say, "Hey, I was just talking," as long as no money changes hands?
Ah, the old nobody likes a showy hooker. I remember reading that in Miss Manners.
Great column as usual, Ann.
wow. These employees were paid by the state to give guidance to people seeking state subsidized housing, you don't think they've committed a crime by counseling their clients to break the law through fraud, tax evasion and underage prostitution?
If you plan someone's murder and you get caught on tape planning the murder so that you cannot actually committ it, have you broken the law?
Good thing Ann's a lawyer, and she can confirm; conspiracy and aiding and abetting crime are CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES!!!!
Yeah, that's usually how it works or how it should work. Frankly, I think prostitution should be legal anyway. Victimless crime.
I can explain to you how to strangle someone. Unless I actively aid you in committing that act, I'm just flapping my lips.
I will be eagerly awaiting next week's column for my "instructions"…
Yeah, but Ann…you apparently forgot the "Pimp Dress Code" defense. (also known as Huggy Bear for those of us who remember Robert Blake before he obtained the "I was only talking about it" advice from the ACORN handbook and after he got rid of the cockatoo, Fred…who might talk, you never know.)
Your problem as I see it, Ann…is too much time in flyover country in your formative years. You see, on the coasts, talking, plotting, scheming, aiding and abetting underhanded and nefarious activity, is called "rehearsal". Or at least a treatment read through.
If it ain't in the script, you must aquit.
It used to be everyone talked about the weather, but nobody did anything about it. Well, until Al Gore, of course.
Now, it appears that everyone talks about committing felonies with 13 year old slave girls from South America, or whomever Roman Polanski meets at Chuckie Cheese these days, but nobody is putting their thoughts on committing nefarious acts in emails, well until East Anglia, of course.
The good news is, we seem to have found a way to cure the mortgage crisis in Brooklyn.
That simply isn't true. And it's a great example of why I hesitate to call myself a libertarian.
In a pure, Utopian world of ideas, prostitution is a 'victimless crime'. In the real world, no matter how much regulation and legislation you put on it, prostitution is a horror story. Girls (and boys) abducted and forced into the sex trade, kept dependent on drugs, beaten, killed.
The moral hazard endemic to much economic theory is nowhere more prevalent than when dealing with 'sin' business. If it is business motivated by a base desire, it will merge with crime. It will become corrupt.
And what if you provide them with the rope?
Aiding and Abetting: At law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even though they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, although Acorn did not actually hide from the lender the source of funds being used to make payments. They did willingly help concoct a scheme to deceive the lender. Sounds like aiding and abetting to me.
So, it doesn't work that way but it should?
I wish I were taller, smarter and better looking, but I ain't.
Look, there's lots of things that need fixing in this country and in our society. How's about we focus on those things and then when we've made some headway we can get down to having brothels on every street corner, or whatever it is the libertarians want.
As long as there is an agreement between the 2 parties to exchange money for sexual favors, it is a crime.
The hatred from from this women never stops. I'm doing a http://www.LIVESHOT.cc on CNN tonight
More potential ACORN CLIENTS/Dem. Voters, on their way to U$A – http://www.BorderInvasionPics.com
Always cool Ann! You’ve been flogging liberals for years and have led the way, you are indeed a pioneer for conservative principle, thanks.
I never thought any real criminal charges would come of this, but it really doesn't matter. ACORN and it's supporters were revealed nationally for what they really are by a couple of kids and a camera. That's all that does matter. The only thing that would have been better is if Breitbart, or whoever, had hired a journalist with some credible background to try the same scam before going public with the tapes. Only this time, follow through with the application process as advised by ACORN. Then you would have crime committed that even the MSM couldn't ignore. These kids did a great service for this country with what they did and I thank them for it. Most conservatives, however, are just not devious enough to think all the way through to get people arrested. The other side has had a lot more practice at this game.
BUT O'KEEFE WAS WEARING A PIMP OUTFIT..!! (Shrieks from the kool-aid kids)… The horror….!!
How they seriously put that out as a defense is very mysterious, indeed…And that any adult would even enterain it as an excuse is "twilight zone territory"….
Using your analogy, if you worked in a bank and told someone how to rob it then you could be arrested and charged for conspiracy to commit bank robbery. These ACORN people were advising people how to circumvent mortgage laws and commit crimes. They weren't just people sitting in a house somewhere drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. They were in the business of helping people get homes, they received money to do so, they committed crimes and should be tried in a court of law.
I wish you were right, huckle, but the MSM did ignore the story and went after the kids instead. I think there are lots of stories out there like this that the MSM purposely ignores because it does not fit their socialist/Marxist agenda.
Ann, as always, what style and wit. Nobody does it better, or for that matter, more accurately. I always love it when Ann gets called a hater. that's as deep as it goes and there is no substantive refutation of her argument.
Mika?????
Newsreal blog says Hynes ran an ACORN front group so why was he allowed to adjudicate this case? http://tinyurl.com/ygtpqtv
If the agreement included a dinner and a movie, is it still a crime?
Welcome miss Coulter… Enjoy your vacation? Looking forward to your next post… don't leave us hanging again hot stuff… Much work to do and very little time to do it… The clock runs fast in a election year don't ya know?…
Keep em Coming..
no, that's called dating.
So does that mean ACORN is helping whores again? Because I could really use a good lay right now.
Candidly, no one gives a damn what you, or anyone else is doing on CNN tonight or ever. What a tool.
So if I give her money so she can see a movie and buy dinner on her own then it's dating. Right?
SO…THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT "HYNESEEE TOWN"
Obama is the 'PIMP IN CHIEF'. Presidential Limo- 72 Cadillac El Dorado— theme song– SHAFT.. HE IS ONE BAD MOTHER… SHUT YO MOUTH… just talkin bout Shaft..
A random person giving personal advice of a general or criminal nature is one thing. Giving specific criminal advice while being paid to counsel is criminal.
It's like registered reps in the brokerage industry. Unless they are advising a client under the rules, policies, and guidelines of the firm for which they are working then it is illegal for them to offer advice other than general information. They start counseling someone and FINRA is all over them.
As a former legal secretary for a quarter century, I know damned well the legal requirements of aiding and abetting a crime. If you are a person hired specifically for a task of finding a house for applicants, than ANY advice you give on that house is one for which you are liable for, regardless of whether or not the applicants took your advice or not. If you therefore advise them how to run a whorehouse, how to employ teenaged girls as prostitutes and how to hide the income from all that, than you are guilty of aiding and abetting prostitution. Period, end of discussion.
The fact that an officer of the law has refused to acknowledge this glaring truth means that the officer is corrupt and also has his legal head up his ass. This explains why his vision is blurred – that brown stuff is hard to look through; it also explains why he can't tell the difference from ACORN's excrement and his own. The rest of us, however, can not only see but smell. Which means that in November a lot of brown stuff is going to find itself flushed down the political toilet.
Of course she doesn't get refutation. She doesn't even push an argument.
What are our societal norms for things we say in private? What kind of fallout can we expect if you say a racist thing in private to someone who is against racism? You might lose a friend or a few friends. If it is in a sting operation, you could lose your job, chairmanship, your career, depending on how the media handle it.
To the libertarians who argue no crime was comitted and that prostitution should be legalized: Your points are well taken. But they will never override the reality that crime and prostitution go together. And if they tell you that they wish to engage in human trafficing of minors (something that is often glazed over as a "prostitution ring" gee how nice), that you would continue to assist and advise them? Plot and scheme on how to accomplish this?
Women and children have been victims of human trafficing for ages. It is one of the last vestiges of slavery that still exists in this country, but it is rampant in other countries. These women are often tricked, and by moving them far from home they feel helpless and alone. They live in fear of violence of their captors or prosecution from the authorities, and often are mistreated, drugged, and if they become troublesome, disposed of. Their life expectancy is 8 years from the time they start. AND SO IT IS A BLACK STAIN on the hearts of those callous fiends who assisted Hannah and Giles. They advised people who, although acting as a sting operation, spoke with the intent to commit these heinous crimes. They should have immediately felt a pang of conscience when teen girls were mentioned, and something should have woken up inside of them, and told them to stop.
Ms. Coulter, you are a peach! I have never disagreed with any of the pieces you have written and rather enjoy the way that you are able to put things together. Please keep up the good work.
But, of course laws don't apply to Liberals, there on a mission form the so-called chosen one.
This story sounds familiar…. AH Yes! It sounds exactly like how the Dems are running the Federal govt right now. Except the Reid would be O'Keefe, Pelosi the whore and )o(, the Acorn rep telling them how they could turn US citizens into captive prostitutes. Somehow, I think all three are way too convincing to be only acting the part. Of course, the MSM would be the district attorney, saying "Nothing to see here, folks… move along".
Ann, you just pointed out the bloomin' obvious–too bad no one is listening.
It's a very sad day for American Justice when it is obvious to all that the "criminal prosecutors" need to be investigated and prosecuted.
I've always said that the Pinkos not only own the whore house, but they also are pimping for the hens.
Have to agree w/ NetBoyRick. Just talkin'. I think the point was to embarrass them anyway. Job done. Now the legacy job is to embarrass all the DA's offices. California Attorney General vowed to prosecute ACORN in California. Heard anything about that yet? Thought not.
Every time the "oldest profession" is discussed, the strawman of "human trafficking" is put on display. There are thousands arrested in this country for prostitution, can anyone, anyone, point to more than a handful of "human trafficking" violations within the last decade? The idea is repulsive and so it is used for effect over and over again with no substance. Is human trafficking terrible? Of course it is. Is it a big problem on a global scale? Yes, but the US isn't Africa or Eastern Europe. Are there laws against it? Yep, hence the debate. If prostitution was legal would there still be laws against human trafficking? Yep, status qua.
Since tennis shoes are made in sweat shops should we outlaw tennis shoes????
Ann, you TOTALLY rock. Great column. Sorry that I don't have something witty, intelligent, on-point or interesting to say; what is it about super-smart conservative babes that turns me into a blithering idiot?
Did I mention that you TOTALLY rock?
Prostitution destroys the souls and bodies of the women whose flesh is sold like a common commodity, and the men who pay for the often-adulterous, physically perilous encounters. There is nothing good or glamorous about it, whether it is done in a back-alley or a suite at the Bellagio, for $20 or $2000. These ACORN people were trying to help condemn women and men to destitution, disease, and Hell. They deserve more than our scorn — for trying to promote modern slavery, they deserve to lose their liberty as well, by spending several years in a prison.
Suckup!
Sounds like a RICO Act case to me (gets you much more jail time):
Para (b) defines one predicate offense:
Whoever knowingly executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice:
1. to defraud a financial institution, or
2. to obtain any of the moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities, or other property owned by, or under the custody or control of, a financial institution, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned for not more than 30 years, or both.
I'm truly NOT a lawyer, but my doofus regular guy eyes read material here that fits ACORN like a glove, or a condom. They are "attempting" to execute, a scheme and artifice, etc. "to obtain moneys", as in get a loan fraudulently. If not, I'm missing some very basic stuff here.
Of course our friendly DA types will use prosecutorial discretion and decide that no matter what heinous act ACORN did or did not do, they are just hunky-dory and should be allowed to go on their way. "Nothing to see here…Move on!".
Has anybody noticed any new landscaping in either Volda Albert's backyard or the backyard of any one of a multitude of people he has advised over the years? I'm just saying …
Am I being censored ??
Care to opine as to which portion of Ms Culter's column was hatred? LMFAO!!!
hate to go against the crowd here, but the point is that these acorn videos:
1. led you to believe the guy went in pimp clothes, but often didn't. that's just b matter.
2. heavily edited the conversations to omit anything that didn't make the point.
3. had the makers talk over the acorn workers when what they said wasn't 'convenient'
4. and ignored that in no case did acorn workers help these people fill out a loan app, and in at least one the acorn workers followed with a police report.
acorn is guitly of employing some stupid people, but none of those people helped anyone try to commit a crime. in all likelihood, they were going 'what the hey is going on' and 'check these folks out,' as any of us would if they walked into our offices.
I personally don't use the term "victimless crime" because you can easily twist the meaning of the term "victim" to include people other than those who directly participate in the activity in question. "Consensual Crimes" is a better term.
I don't believe that a "business motivated by a base desire" will "merge with crime". The criminal element comes because the activity is illegal. Have the legal brothels in Nevada been corrupted in organized crime? And there's something else to consider: when prostitution is legal, than anyone who is abducted and forced into the sex trade are much more likely to pursue legal action against those to abducted them. It's hard to seek protection from the police when you have to admit that YOU were committing a crime too.
I think a great example of how legal prostitution merges with crime is pretty much any instance of legal prostitution in Europe.
If it's a business transaction, then you have to report the income. She owes the IRS a few minutes of the movie and part of her entree, and they owe you a reach-around.
Hey ann, you are such a waste of Oxygen. and at your age you really need to stop the tank tops and cleavage shots. Just what are you selling, since this article was about Whorehouses.
Check
typical liberal – resort to personal attacks…
Breitbart employs felons. No wonder he's been so hysterical lately. He's terrified he'll wind up in prison, surrounded by inmates who once benefited from ACORN's work.
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