The Barack H Obama Foundation, an American charity set-up and run by the U.S. President’s half-brother, has been accused of fraud.
Washington watchdog group, The National Legal and Policy Center made the accusation last week in a formal complaint to the IRS and US Post Office.
The group has accused the organisation of 'soliciting tax-deductible contributions from the public although it is not tax exempt,' according to the NLPC website.
What the organization is said to have done – advertised that it has non-profit status when it allegedly doesn’t – may equate to fraud.
The charity claims to aid poor Kenyans. But it is accused of lying about being federally recognised amid claims no one knows where the money is going.
Abon'go Malik 'Roy' Obama, 53, the President’s half-brother, set the charity up in 2008 when Barack was running for presidency, naming it after their shared father.
Grandiose in objective, the website reports the charity’s mission is ‘to provide people everywhere with resources to uplift their welfare and living standards in memory of Barack H. Obama: in the region of his birth, Kenya and beyond.’
The charity claims to have provided drinking water in Kenya's Siaya District, built a Muslim school and be currently building an imam's residence, according to the New York Post.
But the only evidence of any of these claims, according to the newspaper, is some photos on the website.
Despite being required to file their expenditures with the IRS, the charity hasn’t done so, the newspaper claimed.
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Professor Ken Rutherford led a college trip to the Obama family village of Kogelo in 2009. When he met with the President's half-brother the group allegedly grew suspicious and decided to give their donation of 400 pounds of medical supplies to a local clinic instead.
‘We didn't know what he was going to do with them,’ Professor Rutherford told The Post. he said he sensed Malik may have been an 'operator'.
While it claims to be a tax-exempt, federally recognized non-profit, Alton Ray Baysden, a former State Department employee from whose house the charity was founded in 2008, admitted the organization hasn’t even applied for tax-exemption.
'We haven't been able to find someone with the expertise to do this,' he told The Post. 'We are informally scouting for an executive director, someone who knows how to register the charity.'
'If they haven't applied for (tax) exemption, they can't promise their donors that contributions are deductible,' charity expert Marcus Owens, a lawyer and former IRS official told The Post.
Malik Obama, an accountant by trade, told The Post that the foundation was 'in process' of becoming a registered charity, with it operating on a budget of $250,000.
Malik is one of few Muslims in a village of 4,000 Christians, with a private mosque on his property, The Post reported. He recently caused a stir by acquiring a third, teenage wife.
BROTHER I LOVE YOU, BUT YOU ARE A LIABILITY
Obama's not the first President to have a brother whose a bit of a pain.
Bill Clinton’s half-brother Roger, pictured, was so annoying he acquired a Secret Service code name — 'Headache'.
Jimmy Carter's brother Billy, a self-described redneck, smoked pot on the White House roof and urinated on an airport runway as reporters looked on.
LBJ’s brother, Sam Houston Johnson, had to be accompanied by the SS whenever he went drinking to stop him bad-mouthing his older brother. In the end he got his revenge, publishing a damning memoir called 'My Brother Lyndon,'
James Polk had two onerous younger brothers. Franklin died at only 28 of alcoholism while Samuel was kicked out of Yale University after starting a riot.
Going back even further, Ulysses S Grant's younger brother Orvil made a pretty penny taking a cut from the sale of trading-post franchises.
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