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http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com/_news/2013/05/22/18406882-irs-apologist-authorized-jester-charity
IRS Apologist Authorized Jester Charity
Tue May 21, 2013
By Sandy Frost
politics corruption irs shriners senate-finance-committee tax-fraud royal-order-of-jesters house-oversight-committee masonic lois-lerner sandy-frost
Lois Lerner, head of IRS nonprofit division. Photo credit: Daily Beast 
Jester shirt logo. Photo credit: Freemasonrywatch.org 
Jester tax return stating exempt purpose "To have fun," |
FYI, a Jester must first be a secretly invited Shriner who must first be a Master Mason.
Elected officials from both sides are calling for Lois Lerner�s replacement. Some stated that the IRS Treasury IG Report highlighted mismanagement at the IRS. This Jester authorization is a prime example and must be included in current Congressional investigations and media coverage.
The authorization letter signed by Lois Lerner, establishing a Jester museum as a 501c3 charity, is here.
The Jesters registered the original charity in Texas, then re-registered as a "foreign" charity in Indiana since HQ is in Indianapolis. Here they built a "museum" and filed for property tax exemption of their million dollar headquarters building because they qualified, on paper at least, for nonprofit status.
Upon inspection, Marion County officials found the property did not meet the standards for tax exemption and denied the Jesters� applications for 2008 and 2010. The appeal process proceeded from October 23, 2009 to October 11, 2011, when an attorney for the Jesters and their executive director appeared before the three-member Indiana Board of Tax Review. Here is the Board�s final determination, denying the Jesters� appeal because they failed to prove they qualified for property tax exemption.
This means that the Jesters must now disband, per a source at the IRS, yet they are going strong.
Here is a list of upcoming meetings.
Article follows.
There is a direct relationship between Lois Lerner, the head of nonprofit groups for the IRS, and the Royal Order of Jesters, a tax-exempt group linked to prostitution and human trafficking. Not only did she apologize for the IRS targeting �Tea Party� type groups, was blasted on �The Daily Show� with Jon Stewart, and will refuse to answer questions before a House committee by taking the fifth, she signed the Jesters� approval letter on March 27, 2004, authorizing their �museum� as a 501c3 charity.
According to the IRS �To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. Organizations described in section 501(c)(3) are commonly referred to as charitable organizations.� Nonprofits get billions in tax breaks in exchange for providing benefits to society by operating for public benefit.
According to Wikipedia �A nonprofit is an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals rather than distributing them as profit or dividends. States in the United States defer to the IRS designation conferred under United States Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c), when the IRS deems an organization eligible. After forming a recognized type of legal entity at the state level, it is customary for the nonprofit organization to seek tax-exempt status with respect to its income tax obligations. That is done typically by applying to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS, after reviewing the application to ensure the organization meets the conditions to be recognized as tax exempt, may issue an authorization letter to the nonprofit granting it tax exempt status for income tax payment, filing, and deductibility purposes.�
This is the same authorization letter that Lerner signed so the Jesters could write off the property taxes for their $1 million �museum� as well as costs of their weekend parties.
The Royal Order of Jesters is an exclusive men�s organization for �those who can afford it.� They hold weekend events called �The Book of the Play.� Nonprofit status allows them to deduct these costs. All of us taxpayers, then, subsidize or make up for what they don�t pay in taxes. In other words, we bear the burden for the taxes the Jesters don�t pay because they are nonprofit.
After investigating the Jesters for over seven years and publishing my findings in over 40 articles, here are the main points:
1.March 9, 2008, the Buffalo News first reported that a NY state Supreme Court Judge resigned after getting caught by the FBI in a human trafficking sting. Other Jesters arrested include the Judge�s law clerk, a retired police captain and a deputy sheriff. The first three trafficked an Asian undocumented alien from Buffalo NY to a Jester party in Ashland KY. The sheriff pleaded guilty to transporting prostitutes back and forth across the Canadian border to a national Jester meeting. According to the sheriff�s federal complaint, an FBI agent interviewed all four and wrote that the Judge told her he worked with the national office to get the prostitutes for the Jesters� meeting in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada �to engage in various sex acts, including sexual intercourse, with members of the organization for money.� The Judge�s law clerk told the FBI agent that he had been a Jester since 1998 and that �at ROJ Books, at a hotel, there is typically a hospitality room where a list of women and room numbers can be found. The ROJ members can then visit the rooms and pay the women to engage in sexual acts.� He continued that he drove his motor home from Buffalo to Kentucky with a prostitute recruited by the Judge from a massage parlor and that he, the Judge and retired police captain �engaged in commercial sex with her in the motor home on the way to the event and at the event.� The retired police captain told the FBI agent that prostitutes were present at the �books� to �engage in commercial sex acts with members of the ROJ.� He continued that the Judge was in charge of getting the �Jester girls� to the national �book�, who then charged an active duty deputy sheriff to transport the prostitutes from the Buffalo airport to a hotel across the border. He further stated that there were 12 to 14 women who worked the national meeting, all flown in from out of state.
2.The Jesters were described in their own section of a federal complaint as a group having a guy in nearly all �courts� nationwide who get prostitutes for their weekend parties.
3.Nearly 20 Jesters were called to be witnesses after former fishing operator Richard Schair unsuccessfully sued a competitor who alleged he got prostitutes for his fishing clients. They were expected to testify that they had sex with underage prostitutes while on a Jester fishing trip to Braxil. Tour guides testified that they asked for girls over 13 and to be called �Masons.� The guides cooperated as the Brazilian Federal Police investigated and indicted Schair, including providing pictures of Jesters having sex with the underage girls.
4.Five Brazilian girls went to the Brazilian Federal Police and testified that Schair recruited them as prostitutes while underage. One told the police she was left pregnant at age 12 after one of Schair�s trips. Four of these women have since sued Schair in federal court, seeking damages provided by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. A year long stay was recently lifted after Schair reported that a grand jury failed to indict him for child sex tourism.
5.The Jesters lost an appeal heard before the Indiana Tax Review Board after failing to prove that either their charity �museum� or fraternity qualified as nonprofit groups for property tax exemption, determination here.
6.The Jesters are made up of Master Masons who must be first be secretly invited Shriners, best known for their red fezzes and hospitals that provide care for burned and crippled children.
7.The Jesters are still active today.
Nonprofit groups must provide their tax returns, form 990, and their application for exemption, form 1023, within 30 days of request. Jester tax returns are available to the public at Guidestar.org. Both Jester charitable and fraternal tax returns show they spent nearly $600K on one of their weekend parties, deducted the costs of �rituals� and they have consistently failed to disclose relationships to each other as well as the Shriners and Masons.
According to notes from the Marion County Property Assessor�s office, the Jesters claim they are related to the Shriners and helped support their hospitals, which is not part of the exempt purpose. Nor did either group report a �related relationship� as Alex Rogers was paid as executive director for both the fraternity and charity and until recently, listed Jester headquarters as his place of legal practice.
Again, according to the IRS �A section 501(c)(3) organization will jeopardize its exemption if it ceases to be operated exclusively for exempt purposes. An organization is operated exclusively for exempt purposes only if it engages primarily in activities that accomplish the exempt purposes specified in section 501(c)(3). An organization will not be so regarded if more than an insubstantial part of its activities does not further an exempt purpose.�
The Jesters list their fraternal or 501c10 exempt purpose as �Held Annual Events which were devoted to fraternalism and spreading the gospel of mirth and good cheer.� According to the Jesters� 2011 charitable tax return, their exempt purpose is �To accumulate, preserve and display for historical and educational purposes artifacts and memorabilia related to the Royal Order of Jesters� with emphasis on Jesters in Shakespeare�s writings.� In 2007, they told the IRS their exempt purpose was �Extending assistance and good cheer to others providing a museum for items and articles of mirth, comedy, and laughter.�
It has been impossible to ascertain how the Jesters� originally described their tax exempt purpose because, after five requests, they have refused to provide their 1023 application for tax exemption, which is against the law. Requests sent on December 20, 2007, April 2, 2010, October 19, 2010, October 28, 2010 and January 22, 2013 remain unanswered. At $20 a day, the IRS could fine them nearly $40,000 for refusing to provide their 1023 application for exemption.
A recent US News and World Report headline reads �IRS Targeting Scandal Rooted In Campaign-Finance Politics.� A related story, �Jesters in Congress,� led Andy Alcock of WCTV to broadcast this story about how U.S. Congressman Gus Bilirakis used campaign contributions to pay for Jester dues and event registration.
The Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees need to include evidence of the Jesters� tax fraud in their IRS investigations and ask Lois Lerner about authorizing part of the biggest nonprofit fraud of our time; prostitution and human trafficking at taxpayer expense.
Further Reading:
The Royal Order of Jesters - The Shriners Secret Society Secret Society - 'Mirth is King'
