Monday, November 23, 2020

AL SHARPTON'S CHARITY PAID A LUXURY CAR SERVICE $777,623 AND SPENT $1.2 MILLION FOR TRAVEL COSTS ACCORDING TO 2019 TAX FILINGS

NAN tax filings show Rev. Al Sharpton paid his family over $80K

 

The Rev. Al Sharpton’s charity kept it all in the family, doling out more than $80,000 in payments to the preacher’s relatives.

The National Action Network paid Sharpton’s 33-year-old daughter Ashley Sharpton $63,250 last year to do social media work and consulting, and gave $13,750 to his niece, Nikki Sharpton, 45, for special-event work in NAN’s Atlanta bureau, according to the group’s most recent tax filing, which was obtained by The Post.

And NAN gave a $5,000 grant to Kathy Jordan Sharpton, 64, the reverend’s wife from whom he separated in 2004. It was listed on the form as scholarship money.

Sharpton, 66, who is NAN’s president, received a modest raise of 1% in 2019, bringing his pay to $327,570. It was a mere pittance compared to 2018’s haul, when he got an extra $722,948 on top of his base pay of $324,000. NAN said the extra cash was to make up for years when he was not fully paid.

The Harlem-based NAN’s mission is as an “activist social justice organization that works within the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to provide a modern civil rights and human rights agenda.” It received $7.8 million in revenue last year and spent $7.5 million.

About a quarter of the expenses were devoted to travel and transportation with an eye-popping $777,623 going to Carey International, a high-end car service which boasts of its “world-class fleet” and “certified, professional chauffeurs.”

Another $1.2 million went to air, train and other travel costs. The filing notes that either Sharpton or Michael Hardy, the general counsel, flies first class.

NAN spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger said the car service expenses were for transportation all over the country, including bringing in dignitaries and talent for the group’s annual conference in New York and regional meetings, and to take victims to rallies or trials. She said Sharpton has his own car and used the car service infrequently. She would not comment on what kind of car he has.

Noerdlinger called 2019 “a banner organizing year in preparation for 2020” and that travel increased because of “voter engagement and registration, work around the census and construction of NAN tech hubs around the United States.”

She said the money for Sharpton’s wife went to a scholarship fund she has through her church and that NAN contributes to it every year.

No such grants have been listed on the organization’s tax filings in recent years.

Sharpton, who is an MSNBC host, founded NAN in 1991 and his relationship with the group raised eyebrows in 2018 when tax filings revealed he was selling the rights to his life story to the nonprofit for $531,000. NAN said it would make money by selling the rights to filmmakers or others although it’s unclear if any cash has come in.

Sharpton’s eldest daughter, Dominique, 34, who has been the organization’s membership director since 2008, according to NAN’s web site, is not listed as receiving any compensation.

In 2018, she received a $95,000 payout in a lawsuit settlement with the city after she claimed she suffered a sprained ankle by walking on cracked pavement in Soho. She posted photos of herself climbing a mountain in Bali just months later.

Compensation to the close family members of an organization’s trustees or key employees must be disclosed on the tax filing, said Laurie Styron, the director of CharityWatch, a watchdog group.

1 comment:

bob walsh said...

Sharpton is a crook. Everybody knows it. Nobody with any power is willing to act against him.