Mohamed Elibiary: Alleged Homeland Security Leaker, Confirmed Tax Scofflaw
Earlier this week, I reported on the ongoing stonewall efforts by the Department of Homeland Security regarding any questions related to my PJ Media exclusive last month that DHS Advisory Council member Mohamed Elibiary had downloaded Texas Department of Public Safety reports from a sensitive DHS database and shopped those documents to at least one left-leaning media outlet claiming that Gov. Rick Perry was running an “Islamophobia” operation.
But while Janet Napolitano continues to stonewall questions about how, when, and why Elibiary was given access to this (including questions posed by my colleague Erick Stakelbeck of CBN News), I can report exclusively here that the organization that Elibiary founded and has operated and headed since 2002, the Plano, Texas-based Freedom and Justice Foundation, had its 501(c)3 tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS in May 2010 for failing to file the required annual IRS Form 990s.
According to the Texas IRS revocations posted on the IRS website, the Freedom and Justice Foundation had its tax-exempt status revoked on May 15, 2010. But even after that date, Elibiary’s organization continued to solicit tax-exempt donations on its website.
From a September 9, 2010, internet archive of the Freedom and Justice Foundation’s website we see that nearly four months after the IRS revocation, Elibiary had PayPal links for three separate projects under the Texas Islamic Council as part of a state-wide two-year effort to raise $250,000: a Muslim scholarship fund, media campaigns, and interfaith community relations. The Texas Islamic Council operates as a DBA of the Freedom and Justice Foundation. At the bottom of the page is a separate button with the words: “Support Our work via a tax-deductible donation!” Each of those four PayPal links is still active and workable.
Even today, the Freedom and Justice Foundation sports a PayPal donation link on its website.
A charity report for Elibiary’s Freedom and Justice Foundation on the Guidestar website explains IRS justification for the revocation of the group’s tax-exempt status:
This organization’s exempt status was automatically revoked by the IRS for failure to file a Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-N, or 990-PF for 3 consecutive years. Further investigation and due diligence are warranted.
In fact, it appears (and we are awaiting confirmation from the IRS) that Elibiary’s organization never filed 990s with the IRS since its founding in 2002. Yet as recently as November 2010, the organization had at least four employees listed on its website.
Earlier this week, I spoke with an attorney who handles not-for-profit tax issues. The attorney reviewed the IRS notice and Guidestar report for the Freedom and Justice Foundation, and I asked what the reasoning might be for not filing the required 990s:
The only possible reason someone would possibly jeopardize their 501(c)3 status by refusing to file would be to conceal the sources of income from the U.S. government. If he was concerned about anyone else finding out that information, that part of the 990 is not accessible to the public, so that’s no excuse. And for such a high-profile personality to decide to just never file doesn’t make a lick of sense unless there’s something he’s deliberately trying to hide. And there are serious questions that need to be answered by the rest of the board of directors too.
How did Elibiary obtain and keep a security clearance when he refused for nearly a decade to reveal his organization’s sources of income to the federal government? This is especially problematic considering he needed that clearance for his work with the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The Freedom and Justice Foundation’s tax-exempt status was revoked in May 2010. Elibiary was not appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council until October 15, 2010 — more than five months later. When DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was questioned by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX01) about Elibiary before a House Judiciary Committee hearing last month, she said that all members of the Advisory Council eventually get secret clearances.
But how was Mohamed Elibiary able to pass the clearance process when his organization had already had its tax-exempt status revoked? More than 45 percent of all security clearance denials are for financial reasons, and many of those are for much more trivial reasons than this instance. Did Elibiary report his group’s tax-exempt revocation by the IRS for his security clearance investigation? If not, why is he still serving with these government agencies and why does he still have his security clearance? If he did report it, how did he get his clearance approved and who approved it? Was there outside intervention at all to help him obtain his clearance? What is the status of his clearance following the HS SLIC leak allegations? And what are the implications of Elibiary continuing to raise money from the Freedom and Justice Foundation website when its tax-exempt status has long since been revoked?
These are all questions that any investigation should look into, but as I reported earlier this week, despite the direct request by TX DPS Director Steve McCraw for an investigation into the allegations of Elibiary’s leaks, one DHS official told me that not only is no such investigation underway, but Secretary Napolitano will make sure that there never is. If that’s the case, Congress clearly needs to step in.
Worst admin in the history of the US and we wont know what else has gone on under the table (as piven states) until they all are thrown out of office!
Please, please, please, who ever comes through the primaries, we must get behind and throw obama and his criminal organization out!!!
Does anyone really think that the person who came from out of the blue, with no prior history about himself except for what he (?) has written and who has aligned himself with every anti-American/marxist person he could find and hired every person who could assist in the insidious and overt destruction of America and who is presiding over the worst, the absolute worst presidential administration in U.S. history, will do anything to anyone who helps in his destruction of America?
So when is PJM getting audited by the IRS?
Not to burst your bubble, but your “attorney who handles not-for-profit tax issues” is missing a rather common reason why non-profits don’t file 990′s. They are often horrendously mismanaged. In fact, as an attorney who is married to an attorney who is nationally recognized as an expert in not for profit tax issues, I would guess full compliance by small non-profits is the exception, rather than the rule.
Doesn’t mean your premise is incorrect. But the your purported proof is anything but. As the saying goes, don’t ascribe to malice what can more easily be explained by incompetence.
Were we discussing a small community organization or association, you might attribute a failure to file a 990 as incompetence. However, an organization collecting from the public and claiming donors can deduct contributions needs to be able to issue gift letters. This means they have some sort of accounting service. No way this is not deliberate.
I know very little about security clearances,but I’m a no profit manager. This stuff I know.
This so called charity should have been closed down and charges filed. Why didn’t that happen?
“This means they have some sort of accounting service.” Not if they’re small. I can type up gift letters on my home PC and do my non-profit’s books in QuickBooks, then file the 990 using form990.org, none of which requires an “accounting service”. Your organization obviously has more money than Elibiary’s. One year, they gave $12,000 in scholarships. They don’t claim to have given any since. There is no evidence than anyone is a “paid” employee of his group. I don’t think they ever generated any significant amount of money (other than the year they gave the scholarships and had a speaker for their banquet). Small 501(c)3′s without professional staff invariably never filed the postcards (990-N) and when the 2006 law allowing automatic revocation for those that hadn’t filed in 3 consecutive years started to effect them, somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 of these organizations disappeared. It was not at all unusual for a 501(c)3 to fail to file, so thousands lost their tax exemption.
It really is a non-story. It’s like digging up how many parking tickets he had or if he was mean to unpopular kids in high school.
Not to burst your bubble, but your “attorney who handles not-for-profit tax issues” is missing a rather common reason why non-profits don’t file 990′s. They are often horrendously mismanaged. In fact, as someone married to an attorney who is nationally recognized as an expert in not for profit tax issues (and gets to hear the horror stories), I would guess full compliance by small non-profits is the exception, rather than the rule.
That doesn’t mean your premise is incorrect. But the your purported proof is anything but. As the saying goes, don’t ascribe to malice what can more easily be explained by incompetence.
My “purpoted proof” is that the IRS notification is posted on the IRS website (and linked to in my article). There’s nothing “purported” about it.
What the poster fails to admit is there no compliance whatsoever, this is far different from mere mismangment.
Patrick you have shown a singular ability to unmask Islamists, and I thank you for it. it is most interesting that a radical Islamist felt it incumbent on himself to attack Perry.
Please also notice that the list of revocations for just Texas is 1034 pages. Note that the scofflaws of the Fraternal Order of Police (#97 El Paso Sheriff’s Department) and five other FOP organizations were revoked on May 15th or November 15th. Similarly for several Fraternal Order of Eagles groups, several Prince Hall Masonic lodges, 13 pages of American Legion entities and literally thousands of other organizations were revoked at the same time for the same reason. What happened to his charity was not at all unusual in 2010. Ask anyone who knows charitable organization treasurers.
Of course, none of the organizations you mention is involved with classified material. Apples, oranges.
SDN, the thing is that 2010 was VERY unusual for no-profits. The IRS never revoked anyone’s tax exemption before 2010 for failing to file a 990. It wasn’t until 2006 that they passed a law that said you had to file a 990 once every three years or face revocation. So, 2010 was the first year (tax year 2009 plus five months and 15 days) that anyone faced revocation for not filing a postcard. (Yes, if your organization had gross receipts under $25,000 in 2009, you only had to file a post card, not a full return. This was raised to $50,000 in 2010, likely because it bombarded the IRS with loads of returns they would never have time to review.)
I would also suspect that dozens, if not hundreds, of people who have various security clearances are, or were, officers of organizations that failed to file a 990.
So, is the FOP composed of scofflaws? Or did they just forget? How about the Elks and Masons? Are they all “cheats”? Don’t forget, tax exempt organizations don’t pay taxes, so they get no financial gain out of it. I’d bet $100 that like the other 10,000+ organizations in Texas that suffered automatic revocations, they didn’t think about it until the notice of their revocation arrived. Of course, if they’d changed PO Boxes since they originally filed for tax exempt status, they may never have been notified directly (my own group changed PO Boxes twice in 3 years, once because the post office we used was always locked after business hours and once because the post office itself made a paperwork error and changed it on us.)
I don’t think Anon was questioning your proof that the organization had not filed their 990 forms. He was questioning your “proof” of their motivations for not filing.
As part of a fairly new and very small non-profit, I have first-hand experience in the difficulties of navigating both the state and federal tax systems and figuring out what all needs to be filed and when. That said, 990′s are THE major 501c3 forms and it is surprising that they failed to file at all. It would not have been surprising if they had filed improperly. They were clearly competent enough, though, to file for the 501c3 status, and that is no small feat.
– infidels!
Until 2010, most non-profits did not bother to file 990s. The charity for which I recently served as Treasurer for a few years had also never filed a 990. According to the IRS website, “Congress passed the Pension Protection Act in 2006, requiring most tax-exempt organizations to file an annual information return or notice with the IRS.” If your organization had gross receipts under $25,000 a year, you only had to file a postcard stating “We still exist” once every three years. So, any 990 that didn’t file a postcard in 2010, by the middle of the fifth month of your new fiscal year (in case your fiscal year was not the same as the calendar year), your tax exempt status was to be revoked. The IRS extended the deadline when the list of tax exempt organizations that were going to lose their status was simply gigantic. Most tax exempt organizations were unaware of the law, which I know because I contacted half a dozen that I saw on the “tentative” revocation lists that I wanted to inform so they wouldn’t lose their tax exemption. I think the deadline was extended twice, into mid-October.
Many thousands of tax exempt organizations were listed as due to be revoked on May 15th, 2010. Fewer ended up being revoked later in the year. Additionally, I think they also established a reapplication process that is relatively easy (and avoids at least some of the fees of establishing a new tax exempt entity.)
You can learn more about it at http://www.irs.gov/charities/
Heh. Manet errr Janet Napolitano is much too busy promoting LGBT issues at DHS than to investigate a muslim mole at the highest levels of DHS leadership.
“DHS Pride Elects Board of Directors and Finalizes By-laws 11/16/2011
DHS Pride, the DHS-recognized employee resource group whose work focuses on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) employee issues for the department has elected its first board of directors. Voting for the board of directors was open to all members of DHS Pride this summer, and the full board was seated in September.
Just this past October, the board approved the final bylaws for the organization. In addition, the organization held a full membership meeting Nov. 4 to share the vision and latest developments.
“The board is energized and excited as we work in making sure the LGBT community within DHS continues to have a voice on issues and matters that impact our community within the workplace,” said DHS Pride President Dorothy Stefan.
At the full membership meeting on Nov. 4, Dorothy Stefan provided welcoming remarks to the group and encouraged a climate of contribution and participation for all members. In addition, a communication working group discussed preliminary plans to move forward with the development of a web presence. The on-line resource will provide information about the organization, news of interest to the LGBT community, and an on-line access point to joining DHS Pride. Information related to the timing and launch of the site will be shared as soon as details are finalized.
DHS Pride is an employee association recognized by DHS under a recent management directive authorizing the formation of employee organizations. DHS employees looking for information about DHS Pride or becoming a member of the organization could contact any member of the board, or send an e-mail to Michael.Widomski@dhs.gov.
The names and positions of the DHS Pride board are listed below:
DHS Pride Board of Directors
Dorothy Stefan, President (ICE)
Adam M. Sulewski, Vice President (CBP)
Mark Hamilton, Treasurer (Management)
Stacie L. Schultz, Secretary (USCIS)
Charlie Batista, Board Member (USCIS)
Norman B. Robinson, Board Member (Management)
Michael Widomski, Board Member (FEMA)”
“How did Elibiary obtain and keep a security clearance when he refused for nearly a decade to reveal his organization’s sources of income to the federal government?”
Rules that apply to others don’t apply when outreach to Muslims is involved.
The current 990 does not appear to require that you state where the contributions you receive come from other than broad categories (Federated campaigns, Membership dues, Fundraising events, Related organizations, Government grants (contributions), or All other contributions, gifts, grants, and similar amounts not included above) so you can file and still “conceal the sources of income from the U.S. government”
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f990.pdf
He’s a bad guy, but this tax exempt revocation is almost meaningless.
Absolutely incorrect.
All donations are listed (though not publicly), because how do you (the donor) claim your tax deductible donation if it can’t be matched up with nonprofit records?
No. Only donations over $5000 or donations that comprise more than 2% of your donations are reported. So, Al-Qaeda could have donated $4999 and it wouldn’t be reported. If you have no donations that meet either criteria, you don’t write them on the Schedule B. Similarly, if you don’t bring in over $50,000, you only file an electronic postcard saying “We are still operating”, so I think that if they received $40,000 from a terrorist-front organization and nothing else, they would also not have to reveal it. I’m not a tax lawyer, so I can’t be certain, but that’s how the forms look to me.
Once again, another green flag alamoudi style security clearance wave to rabid supporter of al-Qaeda ideology inspiration Sayyid Qutb. By our our own hands.
Ah, if a 501(c)3 receives more than $5,000 or 2% of its funds from one source, that source must be listed on Schedule B.
Also, it’s not clear whether any of the four people listed on that page that you refer to as employees are employed full-time or paid for their services. Lawyer Ian Benouis, who chairs the group, apparently has his own law firm (apparently West Point 1986 graduate, Blackhawk pilot and veteran of Operation Just Cause – http://www.guestworker.com/Team.htm). Paul Galloway appears to work for IMGH (http://imgh.org) in addition to F&J.
We already know that this guy violated national security by releasing data to the public that he shouldn’t have, but whining about this charity will just look foolish. Thousands of charities lost their tax exempt status in 2010. Very few had lost their status before because there was no automatic revocation. Thousands of charities had never filed a 990. Now, most file either an electronic postcard or a rather simple form. The revocation for this group was not at all unusual.
I’ll be more blunt than some other commenters. May 15, 2010 means pretty much one thing in the nonprofit world. The purported expert who gave the “only possible explanation” quote sounds like either a very inexperienced nonprofit lawyer, or a very bad one. Any journalist whose research fails to turn up the myriad stories on the changes to 990 filing requirements and the exposure to status revocation of small, casually-run c3s, isn’t much better. C’mon guys. If you want to sloppily miss the obvious, get a job with CNN.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ignoring a presidential veto threat, the Democratic-controlled Senate moved methodically Thursday to complete a massive defense bill that would deny suspected terrorists, even U.S. citizens seized within the nation’s borders, the right to trial and subject them to indefinite detention.
muslims are exempt from ‘man made laws’.. this is the Obama Regime
In an attempt to explain my messed-up reply to Anon up-thread, which was sent from my phone (and I hate autocorrect with a bloody passion), I add the following.
While it is true that many non-profits were de-listed in May of 2010, I would note that the vast majority of those were tiny “mutual benefit” nonprofits – local history groups, some defunct and nearly defunct “friends of” associations, and – sadly – a vast number of civic groups, whose boards are nonprofessional, and had no clue how to manage the reporting requirements.
Starting a nonprofit is not easy, and maintaining one’s 501(c)3 status can get hairy, especially if you’re a smaller charity; however (and this is a very large caveat), if you have enough wherewithal and sophistication to set up a Pay-Pal link, you have no excuse to not file a 990 of some sort.
Further: if you accept donations from the general public, while they will not be publicly listed, the government does see their information, because when the non-profit issues the “gift letter” acknowledging the donation, they keep a copy for the IRS; that way, the IRS can verify that you did, indeed, give that gift. Where it gets messy are donations of clothing and household goods, but that’s another matter entirely. More significantly, the person or organization who receives money from a nonprofit very definitely is known to the IRS. I work on the funding side of nonprofit world, and we have to list our grantees. Of course, our grants are given to “public charities”; those who fund and award scholarships do not list the persons awarded scholarships in public, but the IRS does receive that information.
So, no. Incompetence does not explain the lack of filed 990′s, of any description. This stinks on ice.
I think you’re giving this group far too much credit. I am not at all convinced that anyone was a paid employee. Nor do we know that they ever exceeded $25,000 in gross receipts prior to 2010 (or $50,000 in 2010 or since), leaving them below the threshold for filing any more than the electronic postcard. According to that September 2010 version, they had only given out six scholarships of $2,000 each through their Texas Islamic Council program since 2007-2008 (though they hoped to be able to issue six scholarships every year, which they have apparently failed to do, since in 2010 the website still only mentioned the original six scholarships and no mention of the number of scholarships appear on their current website). Note also, that they used only a PO Box in Plano for mail, and that their “office” might be as small as a single room (see http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/15264563/1925-E-Belt-Line-Road-Carrollton-TX/ for the room sizes and rents on the 4th floor of that building – it might have been a $500/year space).
So, in my mind they are no more professional than any of the tiny “mutual benefit” non-profits that had their tax exempt status revoked.
Remember, in 2002, when they got their non-profit status, the IRS paid little attention to whether small organizations filed a 990. Only in 2010 (for the 2009 tax year, three years after that 2006 law that punished non-filing with revocation) were there any significant number of revocations and no automatic ones. There were something like 30,000-50,000 automatic revocations in 2010 (based on the 1034 pages of Texas automatic revocations and guessing that other states had similar numbers).
Isn’t it Occam’s Razor that tells us that the simplest explanation is most likely true? Incompetence is the simplest and most likely.
Oops, that should have read “Prior to 2010 (for the 2009 tax year, three years after that 2006 law that punished non-filing with revocation) there were never any significant number of revocations and no automatic ones.”
Thank you for providing all this important information.
Something else we need to know: Is Elibiary the only Muslim among the 26 advisory council members?