Will media pursue beleaguered financial institutions charitable contribution to controversial organization as they have with executive compensation?
By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
Remember the outrage when it was discovered former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain – how he spent over a $1 million to redecorate his office, as meticulously itemized by CNBC correspondent Charlie Gasparino for The Daily Beast?
Merrill Lynch was acquired by http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5701 (NYSE:BAC) in September 2008 and Thain was eventually let go, and the backlash for his extravagant redecorating ensued.
But, this latest indiscretion has gone unnoticed by the media – a donation in the amount of $2 million to the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5898 (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) Housing Corporation of Chicago, according to a document posted on Bank of America corporate philanthropy Web site – which shows the bank had given the total amount in grant money from October 2007 through June 2009.The document also details several regional grants to ACORN, which is said to be finalized through 2009, but currently included the following:
* ACORN (Miami) – $50,000
* ACORN Housing Corp. (Chicago) – $85,000
* ACORN Housing Corporation (Las Vegas) – $20,000
ACORN has been associated with cases of voter fraud, accounting improprieties and has lobbied for obligatory housing assistance from the federal government for home borrowers that got in over their heads with recent mortgage woes.
http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20090203060343.aspx