Videotapes showing workers at a liberal advocacy organization dispensing tax advice to a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute have sounded alarms among Maryland nonprofit groups, which acknowledge they could be vulnerable to similar tactics.
"It's a general warning to everybody," said Peter Sabonis, chief counsel for Maryland Legal Aid. "It wouldn't surprise me if we've had enemies of our program come in here in all of our offices and try to show we're violating our congressional restrictions and using our money illegally."
Still, Sabonis and other nonprofit organization leaders say they have taken no particular precaution to avoid getting caught in sting operations like those that snagged workers at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN.
Activist filmmaker James O'Keefe and a friend, Hannah Giles, posed as a pimp and a prostitute and visited several ACORN offices, asking for advice on how to shield income from taxes. They also talked about bringing underage girls into the country to work as prostitutes.
O'Keefe videotaped conversations he had with ACORN employees in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y, where one employee was heard telling the couple that they should launder money. Four employees have been fired, including two in Baltimore.
The release of videotapes last week has caused a furor in Washington and beyond, with the House of Representatives voting 345-75 Thursday to deny federal funding for the group. Representatives Elijah E. Cummings and Donna Edwards, both Democrats, were the only members of the Maryland delegation to vote against the measure. The U.S. Senate adopted a similar ban Monday.
The Census Bureau, meanwhile, also has severed its ties with the group for the 2010 national census.
Republicans have urged federal officials to go further by launching a comprehensive investigation of how ACORN spends and manages federal money.
On Thursday, the Maryland Senate Republican Caucus called for Gov. Martin O'Malley to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate ACORN dealings in Maryland. The governor has declined to do so, saying ACORN receives no state money.
Meanwhile, Maryland groups that work with the poor and immigrants say they are trying to be careful that they are helping those who truly are in need.
"I can't say that we're better than ACORN and that we can never be duped," Sabonis said. But he added, "It's so mind-boggling that someone can talk about human trafficking and no bells would go off."
