Alas, poor Minutemen...

[AZRedhawk44]

I used to volunteer with these folks along the border, until things started smelling fishy.

People started leaving over financial impropriety of the MCDC, and MCDC kept calling it lies by disgruntled former members.

Al Garza left about a month ago to start a Minuteman spin-off, and I expect him to keep his corrupt connections with Chris Simcox, Declaration Alliance, Deiner Associates and American Caging.

Carmen Mercer evidently teamed up with another group to bilk people out of money, implying they could reduce their property taxes if they only sent her a check for $189.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/08/15/20090815taxscam0815.html

State Attorney General Terry Goddard filed a lawsuit and received a temporary restraining order against a California firm that has mailed thousands of official-looking letters soliciting money in exchange for a property-tax-assessment analysis.

The letters carry the name Property Tax Review Board Inc. and imply that the company can reduce property-tax bills if residents pay $189.

Goddard said the advertisement violates Arizona's Consumer Fraud Act
because of its official appearance and because the deadline for property-tax appeals was in April.

Goddard himself received a letter at his home Thursday and said the personalized advertisement "is close enough that it would really grab my attention."

The letter does state that it is from a non-government agency but only in fine print.

"We are hoping we are going to be able to protect anybody else from this," Goddard said, adding that his office received hundreds of calls, including complaints from the state's 15 county assessors.

Mesa resident William Rogers Jr., 81, said he received a letter Thursday and was suspicious. He said he was concerned that newcomers to the area might be taken in.

"Heck, they might see this and write a check to reduce taxes," he said.

He said he called the Better Business Bureau and learned there were other complaints.

The lawsuit names Property Tax Review Board Inc., a Granada Hills, Calif., company; Property Tax Review Board President and CEO Michael McConville of Simi Valley, Calif.; and Carmen Mercer of Tombstone, the owner of the post-office box included in the solicitation.

Attempts to reach McConville and Mercer for comment Friday were unsuccessful.

The restraining order requires the defendants to stop mailing the advertisements and allows postal authorities to intercept any responses.

"Given the sophistication of the solicitation, I'm afraid many people have written $189 (checks) because it is such a compelling piece," he said.

According to Goddard's office, Mercer has turned over the post-office box to U.S. postal inspectors and has surrendered the more than 1,000 responses she received.

Goddard said Mercer, who has cooperated with investigators, claimed she was asked by a friend to open the post-office box and did not know what it was going to be used for.

Goddard added that postal inspectors will work to return the money to residents.

The lawsuit seeks to stop the defendants from soliciting property owners, as well as refund payments they've already received and pay $10,000 for each violation.

Homeowners can also file a complaint with the Attorney General's Consumer Information and Complaint section at 800-352-8431 or www.azag.gov.

This effectively decapitates the MCDC, and all us volunteers are incredibly disgruntled that our sweat and efforts for what was a great program around 2005, devolved into this pile of excrement it is today.  There was simply no means to decapitate the beast, though.  It had to eat itself on its own.

[Jamisjockey]

Since this has more to do with the business dealings of the Minutemen leadership than the Illegal Immigration activism of the group, I'm going to send it over to the RT.

[Fjolnirsson]

Wow, that stinks. It's terrible when a good organization is run into the ground through the unethical behavior of a few involved.

[Balog]

Red: been a few years since I was in that part of the world, but I've worked a little with Simcox. Has there been a corruption scandal with him? I vaguely recall someone (you?) Mentioning that on here before, but I can't remember any details.

[BReilley]

I'll say it again: it's not that difficult to earn an honest living.

We also received one of those letters.  Filed.

[AZRedhawk44]

Balog:

Yep, a fella in Fountain Hills (Jim Campbell) mortgaged his house to $100,000 and donated it to the MCDC fence project... and it got re-appropriated to the MCDC PAC instead.  90% of the fence construction donations got redirected to the PAC.

What's that mean?

Imagine you gave $1000 to the NRA-ILA deliberately intending for your money to be spent on lobbying efforts for Senator Superman's "Let's make machine guns a legal over the counter product sans ATF regulation" bill.

The NRA instead takes that money and puts it into the NRA Political Victory Fund, and it goes to help a C-rated RINO beat out a D-rated democrat.

The MCDC PAC money pays for MCDC leadership to get new suits, rent cars, stay in hotels, fly all over, reimburses MCDC leadership for anything they feel is justifiable, and results in pro-border-security donations to candidates espousing that view.

There was a completely different fund for the fence project.

The PAC was also routinely raided by American Caging (the web hosting and financial transaction processor), Deiner and Associates Consulting, Declaration Alliance and some other Beltway lobbying shell companies.

Just got another email update of another resignation.

Lucy Garza just left.  She was helping Carmen Mercer find someone to hand-off the organization to.

All that's left is Carmen, so far as I can tell.  And she's gonna visit the greybar, I think.  The org is gonna die. 

Something honest to the ideals of border security needs to replace it.

[Balog]

What a damned shame. :(