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October 09, 2008

Even Sizemore's Attorney Can't Defend His Spending

Oh, boy. You know it's bad when you're sitting in court and your attorney is telling the judge that he can't defend what you did because he isn't really sure whether it's legal or not, but at least he's sure it didn't violate a court order. That's exactly what happened yesterday in Sizemore's latest trial.

In his closing argument, Byrne said, "I'm not going to defend (Sizemore's) use of ATRF funds to pay family expenses. I don't know if that is a violation of the law."

But, Byrne argued, it is not a violation of the injunction because none of the foundation money was given to Sizemore's initiative campaign committees. If only $14,000 was spent on the Web site, Byrne asked, where did the rest of the money go?

"We know where it went," Byrne answered himself. "It went to braces for his daughter. It went to Fred Meyer and to the gas station. It went to a lot of things. But none of it was a political contribution."

This is a fascinating development, because I know if Sizemore had been that obvious in spending money from the Oregon Taxpayers United Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3), he would have been in big trouble, and even he knew that. Of course, he knew he could get away with lying to contributors about how he spent their money when it was given to his petitioning company - on a swimming pool, remodeling, etc. And he knew he could get away with lying to friends and fellow church members years ago when he took their investments in his toy company and used it to buy a nice piece of property on which he built his family a house and a fishing pond. So this is the same ol', same ol'.

Sizemore's new foundation, American Tax Research Foundation, is registered as a "Domestic Non-Profit Corporation" in Nevada. Nevada's rules for Non-Profit Corporations can be found here. I doubt Sizemore is technically a voting "member" of the corporation, otherwise his dipping into the funds would be a blatant violation of law. So as I read the statutes, the real problem here is the proportion of ATRF's money that is being spent by Sizemore on personal expenses, as opposed to the amount being spent educating the public, which is the supposed purpose of the organization. It is clear to me and just about every other person whose head isn't buried in the partisan sand that this is another Sizemore "sham charity."

It's more than annoying to think that a couple of millionaires - Loren Parks and Dick Wendt - are avoiding paying their share of taxes by donating money to this sham charity and deducting those donations on their income taxes, when all the charity serves to do is pay Sizemore for, as he puts it, "a lot of pondering and thinking about public policy in general" while he "volunteers" as a ballot measure writer and signature-gathering organizer.

And let's not overlook the fact that Mr. Compulsive Liar Sizemore came up with another whopper when explaining to the Court why he needed to use AFTR money to buy a timeshare in Mexico:

Sizemore said use of such apartments had to be arranged well in advance and he saw this as a way to force the ATRF board to set a date for its annual meeting.

Under questioning by Hartman, he acknowledged that only he and his wife have used the apartment and that the board meeting could just as easily be held in Klamath Falls.

It never ceases to amuse me how incapable Sizemore is of seeing - or maybe caring - how badly he humiliates himself with his constant lies. Polite society has allowed that to continue, because nobody want to look a grown man in the eye and say, "Are you freaking serious?" He's been playing people for fools all his adult life. I had a feeling the guy was incapable of changing his spots, and it looks like I was right.

Posted by Becky at October 9, 2008 10:04 AM