• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    running a charity and saying that you’re donating money and then not donating that money is still charity fraud

    Potentially. I’m not a tax expert, and I do know there’s usually some leeway about timing, though there’s a good chance delaying for 10 years does violate the law (not sure how the process of moving from private to public nonprofit changes things). This would hinge on how the IRS sees the “promises” Jirard made when asking for donations, whether the eventual donation fits with those promises, and how the IRS interprets the law.

    There’s certainly enough to allege that they committed charity fraud, but there absolutely must be an official investigation before conclusions can be drawn. If you jump to conclusions, you can legitimately be sued for defamation and perhaps libel, depending on the statements.

    the money from those events do not add up to the money they have on their non-profit statements

    Again, that’s not proof, it’s evidence, and it certainly warrants closer inspection. We don’t know the deal between the groups involved, and we have no way of getting those without an investigation.

    You can absolutely say, “this is really fishy, explain yourselves” and file reports to the relevant authorities (crowd-sourcing reports is a step too far since it just increases the crap authorities need to wade through).

    He’s a scumbag, and a criminal, and a thief

    There’s a good chance of that, but at the end of the day, he is innocent until proven guilty, and if you assume otherwise, you open yourself up to defamation lawsuits. That doesn’t matter on something like Lemmy, but it absolutely does for people use make their living off public statements.