LOS ANGELES – The trade association for the adult entertainment industry has had enough of what it calls “willful and repeated lawbreaking” by a nonprofit organization ostensibly devoted to fighting HIV/AIDS and supporting victims of the disease.
On Wednesday, Free Speech Coalition called on California Attorney General Kamala Harris to investigate AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s political activities to determine whether the organization’s non-profit, tax-exempt status should be revoked.
“The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is registered with the California Attorney General’s registry of charitable trusts (#068531),” FSC wrote in a Sept. 1 letter to Harris. “As such, this non-profit organization is entitled to special treatment under the law, including tax-exempt status. Our organization is concerned that this entity’s political activities have surpassed the legal spending limits and is in violation of their non-profit status.
“We have reviewed multiple newspaper reports and publicly available documents that appear to indicate that AHF has spent nearly $7 million over the past 4 years on lobbying/political activities, in excess of legal limits,” the letter continues. “… It is unclear whether there are additional lobbying/political expenses.”
The letter also suggests AHF may have “grossly underreported” its spending to the Internal Revenue Service.
FSC copied the Harris letter and documents to AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s board members.
“Many people have wondered how a non-profit like AHF could spend so much money in politics, given the strict limitations placed on non-profit political activity by the IRS and the State of California,” said Jeffrey Douglas, FSC’s chairman of the board. “The answer appears to be by underreporting campaign expenditures on tax forms, even while filing much higher numbers on state lobbying disclosure forms.
“A non-profit organization should not be able to abuse the status granted to it by the state of California,” he added. “Actions like these not only distort the political process, they starve in-need communities of critical services so that checks can be written to lobbyists.”
Among the allegations contained in support documents accompanying FSC’s letter to Harris:
1) In 2012, AHF reported to Los Angeles County $2.3 million in political contributions in support of Measure B, the so-called “condoms in porn” law. However, AHF’s tax filings report only $1.6 million in total campaign expenses. That same year, AHF also paid $100,000 to a lobbyist in Sacramento and $200,000 to a lobbyist in Washington D.C., bringing the organization’s annual total to $2.6 million — $1 million more than AHF reported to the IRS and the California Attorney General.
2) AHF’s total political and lobbying expenditures in the past 4 years are nearly $7 million — $1 million higher than the threshold for revocation of tax-exempt status.
Free Speech Coalition is concerned about AHF’s political activities because a statewide ballot measure proposed by the organization is pending before the state’s elections officials. If approved, the measure — which calls for mandatory condom usage on adult film sets, would establish severe penalties for minor infractions, and seeks to install a “porn czar” with virtually unlimited power and no legislative oversight — would go before voters in 2016.
Documents and statements supporting the FSC’s call for an investigation into AHF’s political activities and expenses may be viewed and downloaded here.
