The feds finally nailed Al Capone — not for murder or racketeering, but for tax evasion. The same technicality may bring down the terror-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Last month, the IRS quietly stripped the shady nonprofit group of its tax-exempt status for failing to file three consecutive years of financial reports. This means CAIR can no longer accept tax-free donations. It does not mean, however, that the IRS has put CAIR under audit. But it’s a good first step.
The missing filings — Form 990s — disclose CAIR’s donors and other sources of funding, among other information the group apparently wants to keep secret.
After years of denial, CAIR has admitted raising funds in Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and other Arab states that use such groups to spread Islamist propaganda in the U.S. and other Western nations. They also use them to lobby against antiterror measures and immigration curbs.
Washington-based CAIR is registered neither as a foreign agent nor lobbyist. Yet it spends a lot of time on Capitol Hill lobbying against the Patriot Act and other laws protecting the U.S. from terrorists.
So what? CAIR has documented ties to terrorists, revealed during a federal trial of a Hamas front group. In 2007, around the time CAIR stopped filing its donor reports, the Justice Department named CAIR among unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas front group’s criminal scheme to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas suicide bombers and their families.
Since then, the FBI director has blackballed CAIR from outreach and is actively investigating its own “connection” to Hamas.
In November 2009, members of the House and Senate wrote a letter to the IRS director calling on him to audit CAIR’s finances and lobbying activities. They cited findings from a book, “Muslim Mafia,” that expose the inner workings of CAIR and other Islamist groups.
A full audit of CAIR should be the next step. Otherwise, it could simply file the missing forms with the IRS and apply for reinstatement of its exempt status.
CAIR employs a full stable of lawyers. It’s obvious it is hiding something by not filing any returns since 2007. It’s incumbent on the IRS to scrutinize its records for all possible violations of U.S. law, including fraud.
CAIR no doubt will cry “Islamophobia.” But turnabout is fair play. In 2008, the group called on the IRS to investigate distribution of more than 20 million DVDs it claimed were “anti-Muslim” to see if the distributor, the Clarion Fund, had violated its tax-exempt status. With no evidence of wrongdoing, CAIR demanded the IRS strip the nonprofit group of its tax-exempt status.
In fact, it was CAIR that was violating tax laws — and apparently still is. Even though its status was revoked May 15, the group is still soliciting donations on its website with the following appeal: “Donations to CAIR are tax-deductible.”
IRS agents, as well as Hill leaders, should take notice.