Reply #45: Accordingly, Saint Hillary should return tainted money taken from Rezko/IPA swine.

[chill_wind]

Even more ideally, she should have never accepted it.

Dear Senator Clinton:
We, the undersigned small business owners from across the country are deeply offended that you continue to accept campaign contributions from top officials of a business consulting company, International Profit Associates (IPA), Buffalo Grove, IL., that defrauded us. As we struggle in federal court via a civil racketeering lawsuit to recover the thousands of dollars this company took from us illegally, you continue to use political donations that might have come directly from our pockets.

We also are appalled because you accepted the money amid dark clouds of fraud allegations, a criminal past by the company’s founder, and one of the largest sexual harassment lawsuits ever filed by the federal government.

We are trying to fight back against this company and you, Senator Clinton, are enabling it. We ask that you immediately donate to charity the more than $150,000 the New York Times says you’ve accepted from IPA’s top officials, a figure that includes a ride on IPA’s corporate jet and a donation from a high school age son of an IPA official.

Surely, now, in the wake of the Norman Hsu scandal, your political staff will turn up the background we’ve known about for some time, including:

 IPA is being sued by the federal government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for widespread sexual harassment. In a New York Times article May 7, 2006 titled, “Rubbing Shoulders with Trouble, and Presidents,” EEOC lawyer Diane Smason called the allegations “probably the most egregious” ever filed by the agency’s Chicago office. She said the investigation found that “sex harassment is the standard operating procedure for this company.” That case is pending in U.S. District Court.

 The Illinois Attorney General’s office has acknowledged publicly that it is investigating IPA for alleged fraud.

 The Better Business Bureau says IPA has an “unsatisfactory record” based on reoccurring complaints that total 427 in the last three years. The BBB has issued “alerts” in various states to warn businesses that IPA was soliciting work there.

 The company founder, John Burgess, is a convicted criminal, according to numerous published reports. He was convicted of attempted grand larceny and of soliciting a 16-year-old prostitute, those reports state. He was disbarred as a lawyer in New York state in July 1987 for “failing to answer charges which involved perjury, larceny, a conviction for patronizing a 16-year-old prostitute, possession of drugs and engaging in a pattern over a six-year period of lies and deceit,” according to The Lawyers Fund for Client Protection of New York state. Burgess also is named as a key defendant in the sexual harassment lawsuit.

 The company’s attorney, Myron “Mike” Cherry, also a contributor of yours(Clinton's), has been identified in published reports as “Individual H” in the Illinois criminal indictment of businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko. Cherry has acknowledged in published reports that he was the conduit for some of the IPA campaign contributions.



 Already, politicians across the country have returned donations from IPA because of the company’s checkered past. Illinois Senator Barack Obama, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager are among those who have returned contributions from IPA.

We have made our fraud allegations in a federal racketeering lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Mrs. Clinton, we see from published reports that you have identified yourself as a champion for women’s rights and an advocate for small business owners. We cannot fathom, in light of those self-labels, how you could possibly accept campaign contributions from a company accused by the federal government of sexually harassing scores of women and one that has left behind a long trail of fraud complaints from small business owners. Do you believe the 114 women who were allegedly sexually harassed at IPA are not telling the truth about that harassment? Do you believe the Better Business Bureau is wrong? Do you think the state Attorney General is unjustified in her investigation of IPA?

We believe this is our concern because the campaign contributions you continue to accept came from the money that we believe was taken from us illegally. We do not believe you should continue to further your political career with such tainted cash.

(see group signatures)

Clinton donor named in Rezko trial/criminal indictment
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4907332#4908770

(bold-face edit mine)