By now most of you have heard of Kenneth Gladney but for those who have not the St. Louis Activist Hub is following this story in a series of articles beginning at the URL below.
http://stlactivisthub.blogspot.com/...
This diary is a call to action to help prevent this Tea Party group from using this phony story for fundraising purposes at the site below-
http://www.iamkennethgladney.com/
In reading over the articles in this series I came upon a very interesting series of comments by an anonymous author that I will post below.
I am curious as to what exactly "The Kenneth Gladney Fund" is. Is this a legal defense fund? A non-profit educational project? A political organization?
I believe that a non-profit organization such as an educational program or a legal defense fund must register in 39 of the 50 states in order to raise funds indiscrimitely online.
Additionally I would then assume that the filing requirements of the Missouri Revised Statutes would have been followed.--
407.462. 1. No charitable organization shall solicit funds in this state, nor employ a professional fund-raiser to solicit funds in this state, for any charitable purpose, unless it has filed with the office of the attorney general an initial registration, which shall be sworn to under oath and shall be in the form and manner prescribed by the attorney general, except that charitable organizations in existence and soliciting on May 1, 1986, may file such initial registration within one year of May 1, 1986. All initial registrations, and amendments thereto, shall be accompanied by a filing fee of fifteen dollars unless the attorney general, by rule, establishes a different filing fee. Amendments to initial registrations shall be filed as prescribed by the attorney general.
A quick check on the Attorney General of Missouri's list shows no registered charity for Kenneth Gladney.
http://ago.mo.gov/...
The penalty in some states can be quite severe. See-
http://74.125.113.132/...
http://stlactivisthub.blogspot.com/...
I did a little further reasearch and found that if this is an advocacy group such as a 527 group the group would be required to report donor information, such as occupation, for donations over $200.00. But the Paypal DONATE link given simply allows you to donate any amount without the need for such information.
I also checked for a charity named Project Libery, but found none.
What can we do?
Contact our Attorney General's and file a consumer fraud complaint. A list of Attorney General's offices by state can be found here-
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.or...
UPDATE: You can also file a complaint with the FTC, as I did yesterday. You do not have to give your personal information to do so, it is opitonal. Here is a link to the form.
http://www.ftc.gov/...
Contact information for the organization can be found here-
http://www.dakotavoice.com/...
David Brown, Attorney
(314) 681-6310
A sample complaint might be-
I have noticed that the website iamkennethgladney.com is soliciting donations indiscrimitely online without being a registered charity, nor are they tracking donation information as would be required of a political organization. Please stop this consumer fraud that is likely only enriching individuals without serving any public good.
So...Let's get down to business
I don't got no time to play around, what is this?
Must be a circus in town, let's shut the sh*t down
on these clowns; can I get a witness?
Eminem-Business