Mortgage Fraud: The Unusual Suspects

By: AUSTIN KILGORE
September 11, 2009 6:21 PM CST

An independent filmmaker posing as a pimp and an associate posing as a prostitute used undercover camera equipment to film ACORN Housing employees in Baltimore allegedly explaining how to obtain a mortgage to purchase a home to start a brothel, including lying to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

ACORN calls the entire incident a smear campaign, with the video being an unfair representation.

The video appears to show two ACORN Housing employees explaining how the “pimp” and “prostitute,” respectively played by filmmaker James O’Keefe and his associate, Hannah Giles, may falsify tax returns to satisfy lending requirements. When the duo tells the ACORN Housing employees they intend to bring underage girls from out of the country to staff the brothel, they are seen to encourage the pair to claim them as dependents and take child tax credits.

The video is available on YouTube and the Biggovernment.com blog and is viewable below.

ACORN Housing released a statement today denouncing the two employees, who have since been fired.

“While no transaction took place – no loan documents were signed or submitted, no bank loans were arranged, no new business was established – this is not how we behave,” the statement said.

The statement also said the video is misleading because the filmmakers attempted to execute their plan at five other ACORN Housing offices and were turned away and, in some cases, ACORN Housing employees notified police.

“It is part of a long-term plan to smear ACORN Housing for political reasons and provide entertainment in the process,” the statement said.

Write to Austin Kilgore.