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CREW to Senate Finance Committee Urging Investigation Into Abuse of Charitable Organization Status

Washington, DC – In response to an anti-union organization’s launch yesterday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter today to the Chair and Ranking Members of the Senate Finance Committee, Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT) respectively, requesting an investigation into the activities of lobbyist Richard Berman, his newest front group, the Center for Union Facts (CUF) and his other non-profit, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF).

Yesterday, CUF ran full-page newspaper ads in the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, claiming that union leaders helped bankrupt steel, auto and airline companies. A copy of the ad is available at www.citizensforethics.org.

Mr. Berman is the president and sole owner of a for-profit lobbying and public relations firm, Berman & Co., Inc. (BCI), which has long served the interests of the tobacco, alcohol and chain restaurant industries. In November 2004, CREW sent a letter to the IRS asking for an investigation into Berman’s and CCF’s multiple violations of IRS law. CREW had copied Sens. Grassley and Baucus on the complaint, but never received a response.

Today, CREW asked Sens. Grassley and Baucus to investigate whether CCF and CUF are engaged in charitable activities or whether they are in fact, merely front organizations for for-profit industry entities.

“Mr. Berman’s pattern of abusing the laws that govern charitable organizations requires a thorough investigation by the Senate Finance Committee,” CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said today. “Richard Berman is giving Jack Abramoff and former Christian activist Ralph Reed a run for their money as to who can reap the greatest profits by exploiting laws intended to promote charitable works.”