By Michael Kranish, The Boston Globe, March 14, 2006

15 Mar 2006 // A watchdog group yesterday asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether Grover Norquist, the antitax activist, broke laws in his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former Christian Coalition chief, Ralph Reed.

The private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, based its complaint to the IRS partly on an article The Boston Globe published last year.

The newspaper reported that Norquist collected at least $1.15 million from a Mississippi Indian gaming tribe, represented by Abramoff, that wanted to block competition in Alabama.

Norquist then sent the funds to two antigambling groups in Alabama, which passed the money to Reed, who led a fight against gambling in Alabama.

In its complaint, the group said Norquist had ''laundered" most of the money by disguising the true source of the contributions to groups opposed to gambling.

The group alleged that Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform, had received some funds as a payment for the laundering, and, therefore, that the group had gone beyond its tax-exempt status by operating as a commercial enterprise.

Norquist used Americans for Tax Reform, or a related foundation, ''to benefit a private party, rather than the general public, by allowing the organizations to be used as a pass-through to funnel money generated by Indian casino gambling to individuals or groups engaged in antigambling efforts," the complaint says.

A spokesman for Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform did not return a call seeking comment.

An IRS spokesman said he could not comment on the complaint.

The money trail began with the Choctaw tribe of Mississippi, which operates a casino and wanted to block competing operations in Alabama.

The tribe gave at least $1.15 million to Norquist's group. Norquist, in turn, sent $850,000 to the Alabama Christian Coalition and $300,0000 to Citizens Against Legalized Lottery.

Most of that money eventually was given by both groups to Reed, the former executive director of the national Christian Coalition, to lead a political fight to block gambling in Alabama.

Reed, whose involvement in the matter has become a major issue in his campaign to become lieutenant governor of Georgia, has said he should have informed the Alabama Christian Coalition that ''the contributions came from the Choctaw."

Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to defrauding his tribal clients, also figures prominently in the complaint. In an e-mail to Reed, released in June in connection with a Senate investigation, Abramoff wrote, ''I need to give Grover something for helping, so the first transfer will be a bit lighter." Abramoff elaborated in an e-mail to himself, writing, ''Grover kept another $25k!" or $25,000.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington cited those e-mail messages in alleging that Norquist had received payment for transferring the funds, and thus had operated his organization as a commercial enterprise, in violation of its tax-exempt status.

''The casinos made contributions to [Norquist's group], which then skimmed a fee off the top before passing the money on to former Christian activist Ralph Reed and other antigambling activists," the citizen's group said in a news release.

''In this way, Norquist, Reed, and Abramoff were able to disguise the fact that the money used to fund antigambling activities was generated through Indian gambling."

Meanwhile, the group itself was the subject of a critical article yesterday in The Hill, a Washington newspaper, which questioned its tax-exempt status and said the organization had a record of filing complaints against Republicans.

A spokesman said the organization is nonpartisan.