You can set up a not-for profit (c3) (c4) corporation, solicit and get thousands of dollars in donations, and then use it as your personal ATM for you and your friends, without fear of being questioned by the public or by the Attorney General’s Office and with even less of a chance of being prosecuted if any laws are broken.
To set up shop is very simple, easy and lucrative. First, name the board of directors –the recommended number is five. It is a magical number. President, vice president, treasurer, secretary etc..not too few as to make it look suspicious and not too many as it will make the slices of the money pie too small.
Then, come up with a name –anything to do with chambers of commerce or business is perfect- with that name in hand, open a not-for-profit (c4) or (c3) corporation. For instance, “Mom and Pop Chamber of Commerce” or “Sidewalks for Small Business” and so on. Your imagination is the limit. A good and catchy name will certainly help open those large companies’ wallets.
After this is done, set up a web page and begin soliciting funds from large companies for programs that your not-for-profit corporation is proposing to undertake and needs funds to bring them to fruition.
If you do it right, in a short time, you will be able to convince several large companies to contribute thousands of dollars for your alleged programs.
The ID number of your new corporation allows you to open a bank account, which in time will become your ATM. The number also gives your not-for-profit the legitimacy it needs to solicit funds.
Now that you have tons of money in your account, is time to get those dollars into your pocket without worrying that someone is going to object or prosecute you. It is time to enjoy the fruits of your scheme. There is only one caveat. Don’t let your corporation expire by not filing with the IRS every year. If you let three (3) years go by without filing, your (c3) or (c4) will expire. So, file with the IRS and spend the money any way you want. No one is going to check it out.
If you file with the IRS, the only other agency who can come after you is the Attorney General and they won’t do it. To them, these little not-for-profit corporations are not worth bothering with. Big politicians that generate front page headlines is what they want. New York State District Attorney General Eric Schneiderman won’t do anything and they told us in no uncertain terms.
We know Schneiderman Office won’t do anything because we tried to get them to compel the Queens Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to turn over to us cancelled checks of accounts payable for tens of thousands of dollars and other documents.
We dealt with Fernando Aquino of the Attorney General Office without any luck in getting them to compel the Chamber to turn the documents in question.
Last December, almost a year after we started our investigation, this is part of what I wrote to Aquino:
“If the office of the State Attorney General office can’t or won’t do anything about this complaint/request, we will like to have you, or anyone in your office, on the record and in writing, tell us why.
If your office doesn’t have the authority to compel the chamber to produce those records as the law governing non-profit organizations stipulates, please let us know what government office is empowered to do so.”
After a year, he responded: “Dear Carlos: we have no comment on this matter”
So, with this in mind, go and open a (c3) or (c4) corporation, build a fat bank account and dip in it whenever you need an infusion of cash.
By Carlos Vélez
Veljia47@yahoo.com