5 months ago
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The group ACORN has fired two workers who were seen on hidden-camera footage giving loan advice to a man posing as a law school student and a woman pretending to be his prostitute girlfriend.
Fox News Channel aired parts of the video and posted it online Friday. It shows a man and woman at the group's Washington office, asking for help in buying a house for her prostitution business. The employees advise her to tell banks that she's a consultant with her own company. They also tell the supposed law student he could buy the house, but to avoid going there because of his political ambitions.
The pair also claimed they planned to employ teenage girls from central America as prostitutes, and an ACORN employee suggested that up to three of the girls could be claimed as dependents, according to transcripts of the video posted online by conservative activist James O'Keefe.
O'Keefe told Fox he posed as the pimp and that he was shocked by the ACORN employees' helpfulness.
In a statement, ACORN Maryland board member Margaret Williams said the video was an attempt to smear ACORN, and that undercover teams attempted similar setups in at least three other ACORN offices.
Williams said no tax returns were filed and no assistance was provided.
ACORN – which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now– advocates for poor people. It conducted a massive voter registration effort last year and became a target of conservatives when some employees were accused of submitting false registration forms with names such as "Mickey Mouse." ACORN has said only a handful of employees submitted false registration forms and did so in a bid to boost their pay.
In a statement, ACORN's president of housing and executive director say there will be an internal review. On Thursday, two ACORN workers in Baltimore were fired after a similar incident.
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