LOS ANGELES – Adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition has filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, asking the federal taxing authority to review the political spending of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. The move sprang from a Saturday report in LA Weekly detailing how, when and why the foundation paid more than $23 million to lobby for or against a number of California ballot measures.
According to FSC, the expenditures jeopardize AHF’s tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status.
AHF co-founder and President “Michael Weinstein is using millions of dollars intended for people living with and affected by HIV on dubious political campaigns that benefit his bottom line,” FSC Executive Director Eric Paul Leue charged. “This is not only a gross violation of IRS limits governing non-profit political spending, [but it’s also] an absolute abandonment of his organization’s moral imperative. Weinstein is robbing underserved communities that need treatment and education dollars to fuel anti-science moral crusades.
“We’re asking the IRS to immediately begin an investigation,” Leue said.
Of most concern to FSC is the $4.6 million LA Weekly said AHF spent to promote Proposition 60, the controversial Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry ballot measure. The proposition, drafted by AHF, would require condoms and other barrier protections be worn while filming explicit scenes. In addition, the measure would allow California citizens to sue producers of content in which no condoms are visible.
Leue said the IRS could withdraw AHF’s tax-exempt status if the federal agency find evidence of financial wrongdoing.
According to a statement distributed by FSC on Monday morning, the complaint alleges:
AHF has spent more than $19.7 million dollars on political campaigns in 2016. Internal Revenue Service regulations limit an organization of AHF’s size to spending $1 million per tax year on political campaigns.
AHF has spent well over the $6 million allowed for a 501(c)(3) over the four-year period 2012-2015.
AHF dramatically underreported to the IRS the amount it spent on Measure B in 2012. AHF reported spending $2.3 million on the Measure B campaign alone to the California Secretary of State, but only reported to the IRS $1.6 million in total political spending that same year.
AHF has engaged in direct attacks on political opponents, including multiple mailers targeting state senate candidate Scott Wiener, violating the Internal Revenue Service’s restriction on political campaigning.
“Michael Weinstein’s out-of-control political spending is putting his organization’s non-profit status at risk,” said Leue. “We also have reason to believe [AHF is] misusing federal 340B funding intended for uncompensated care to help finance political campaigns and for-profit business development.”
The FSC’s complaint against AHF mirrors a complaint AHF made against FSC last year. In December 2015, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission fined the FSC $61,500 after investigating an AHF accusation that the FSC used foreign donations to lobby against another Weinstein-backed initiative, L.A. County’s Measure B. The ordinance, which passed, served as a model for Prop 60.
