Klingenschmitt Doesn't Separate Political and Religious Money, either...
20 Comments
by: kwtree
Rep. Gordon K. in Da Housse! (from GJK’s Facebook page)
(This is a reader diary promoted to the front page by Colorado Pols)
Representative Gordon Klingenschmitt from Colorado’s House District 15 just cannot remove his foot from his mouth. He also just cannot separate religious and political speech. Using scripture to explain horrible crimes, slandering of colleagues and organizations as terrorists, all stem from this basic conflation.
However, what I’m outlining here is how his campaign finances suffer from the entanglement of religion with politics. I will look at all three organizations Klingenschmitt owns or uses:
GJK, Inc (his for-profit company),
GordonforColorado, (his campaign committee),
The Pray in Jesus Name/Persuade the World Ministries nonprofit. (PIJN/PTWM).
It’s not as gruesome and insensitive as his “God judges America /Ripping Women Open” comments, but just as horrifying if you believe, as our country’s founders did, as I do, in the separation of church and state.
Problem #1: The mysterious GJK, Inc. corporation
GJK Inc, appears to be Klingenschmitt’s large, unregulated, unaccountable cash stream from online donation buttons on the PJIN religious pages. This is illegal and unethical.
Updated: The Pray in Jesus Name site still links to GJK, Inc, for cash contributions. GJK is the media arm of Klingenschmitt’s businesses, and the one he gets paid from.
[Lots more after the jump…]
On Klingenschmitt’s Pray in Jesus Name page, there is a button to donate to his political work. The payee is named “GJK, Inc”. He claims that this is a private for-profit (non-tax exempt) journalistic corporation fully in compliance with IRS rules. This does not seem to be true.
This fund is not listed as a corporation with the Colorado Secretary of State. If it’s not a real corporation in Colorado, it can’t report to the IRS.
Paypal typically feeds directly into bank accounts – so it isn’t a stretch to assume that “GJK Inc” is merely the name of a bank account. If he is taking political contributions directly into a private bank account, with no accounting or transparency, this is a flagrant violation of campaign finance rules.
On the KNUS Craig Silverman show March 28, Klingenschmitt was closely questioned about the GJK account. He responded that he had received “in the neighborhood of $800,000 dollars” in donations from the direct mail and online solicitations in 2014. He says that he takes no salary from the operations. If GJK is raising $800,000, as he says, then he wouldn’t need to take any money from Pray in Jesus Name’s paltry $39,000.
The Independent’s John Tomasic has also investigated the GJK account, specifically because Chaps’ other “religious” account, the Pray in Jesus Name/Persuade the World Ministries Account – had been suspended by the Secretary of State’s office for bad paperwork.
According to the Charitable Organizations Division and the Secretary of State website, the group’s charity status was suspended on October 15, 2014.
In an email sent Tuesday, Klingenschmitt explained that the fundraiser emails he has sent out since October 15 and that were cited by The Colorado Independent “come from a totally different for-profit corporation, GJK, Inc., not from the non-profit as you falsely claim.”
So the GJK, Inc. corporation is being used both for political and religious donations? If so, that is a serious problem and a campaign finance violation. That’s not the only asset used for both political and religious purposes – the candidate’s PO Box 77077 Colorado Springs, 80970, is the same for all three entities – the campaign, GordonforColorado.com, “GJK, Inc”, and the religious non-profit PIJN/PTWM solicitations. Clicking “Donate to Political Work” on the PJIN page leads to a Paypal donation page headed GJK, Inc.
Problem #2: The Pray in Jesus Name/ Persuade the World Ministries Nonprofit raises funds for charities, but apparently does not distribute funds to said charities. This is a violation of state and federal rules – charities are required to file regular financial reports, and to give as they promise that they will give.
As noted previously, by the Independent and Pols reporters, “Dr. Chaps” has not been keeping up with the required paperwork on his PIJN/PTWM nonprofit.
PIJN/PtWM directly interferes in politics, interviewing and advocating for candidates such as Ted Cruz, Randy Baumgardner, and others running for office. PJIN has done this for years, which would appear to violate its tax-exempt status. On a chemtrails conspiracy site, Klingenschmitt brags about influencing elections in 2009. On the 2013 PTWM/PIJN 990 form, question 46 asks:
Did the organization engage in political campaigns directly or indirectly for any candidate? Klingenschmitt, or his tax preparer, checked the no box. However, PIJN indirectly and directly campaigns for candidates at the local, state, and national level, with obvious intent to influence elections.
The Orissa Orphanage Solicitation
Chaps solicited donations for this charity, claims that he “built an orphanage for 94 kids in India” but there is no evidence that he ever gave any money to build an orphanage. Specifically, in April 2013, on Episode 37 of the PIJN show, Chaps said that he was “going to build an orphanage in Orissa, India.” The episode cut to video clips of Indian children clapping and singing, presumably in an orphanage. A “Pastor Basat (sp?)” was identified. Chaps said that he had been to this orphanage and had talked with the Pastor.
The orphanage was never named in the clip. The “Donate to the Orphanage” button in the video went to a Rocketfunding crowd funding site, which refers to a non-working link for “Pray in Jesus Name”.
There are many orphanages in Orissa, India, many desperately poor children, many Christian and other organizations trying to meet their needs. Chaps was quite specific about what the donations would be used for: to build a 3500’ addition to an existing apartment, with three bathrooms and a second floor. He asked for $7000 to make this happen. In fact, he says it did happen. His campaign website claims that he is a “Charity Founder”, who “Built orphanage for 94 children in India”. UPDATE 3/2016 – His campaign website still says
Gordon leads a non-profit charity Pray In Jesus’ Name Ministries, which broadcasts on television and raised all money to build an orphanage for 94 children.
There are no charitable grants on the 2013 tax return of Persuade the World Ministries . The only large expense paid is $11, 610 to Altarnet, which is a local Christian media and video production studio that probably does Chaps’ slick video productions. On this form 990, schedule O, where grants would be listed, only equipment and operating expenses are listed.
Problem #3 The subcontracting entities Klingenschmitt uses for his online and direct mail solicitations, Diener Consultants, and Eberle Associates, have been accused of collecting monies which they then do not fully distribute to the client charities or campaigns. Diener Consultants is also deeply involved with racist anti-immigrant groups.
L Phillip Sheldon Diener’s CEO and registered agent for the Parker, CO branch is L. Phillip Sheldon, who ran SAVE, listed as one of the “Fifty Worst Charities” in the US, because, while their mission was to raise money for victims of sexual violence, only 33% of those funds ever reached victims. Louis Sheldon is the founder of the Traditional Values Coalition (rated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.) So yes, the people who managed Chaps’ online money stream are a known Nativist hate group, who also exploit victims to raise cash.
Direct Mail – Eberle Associates. They are extremely conservative direct mail and online-solicitation outfit, also known for vacuuming money in, and distributing very little of it out. . They handle Chaps direct mail operations, according to his 990 forms. UPDATE: Chaps’ 2014 990, available via a free account on the Guidestar website,lists his fundraiser as Fundraising Strategies, Inc. Coincidentally, the Board of Directors of this new fundraising entity includes Bruce and Kathi Eberle.
Problem #4 GordonforColorado.com.
The contributions listed to this campaign from FollowtheMoney show several contributions from individuals that are much greater than the $200 limit. There is also an unitemized amount of 1,102 from two donors. Both of these are against the rules outlined in the most recent Colorado campaign finance manual.
America’s founders set up constitutional separation of church and state for excellent reasons. It’s not just a good idea – it’s the law. Gordon Klingenschmitt has found that mixing politics and religion is very profitable, if his figure of making $800,000 from 2014 donations is to be believed. But it’s still unconstitutional, and illegal.
Tax time is coming, Gordon. Let’s see some transparency on GJK, Inc. Let’s see some accountability in your nonprofit organizations. Make some refunds or pay some fines on your gordonforcolorado campaign committee site. Use this six weeks away from the video cameras to find out what happened to the $7,000 to build the orphanage for those kids in Orissa, India. If you never sent them the money, send it now. If you sent it, show us the donation. Clean up your act…..or Colorado voters and legislators of both parties will clean it up for you.
20 thoughts on “Klingenschmitt Doesn’t Separate Political and Religious Money, either…”
Have a feeling Gordon is going to be sorry he decided to indulge in a political career. Brings a lot of scrutiny he probably could have done without. All of the above could make cutting him lose conveniently easy for his party.
Here’s the orphanage video, which I couldn’t get to post in the diary. It also looks as though some emergency editing was done on the publicly searchable episode 0037, cutting it down to one minute.
I agree that this is good research. It also confirms my long held feeling; as an astute student of the religious right; that Klingenschmitt is like 90% + of other prominent religious righties. They’re in it for the money. And they’re definitely CINOs (Conservative In Name Only).
In the mid-1970s, when I still lived in my home state of Indiana, I pondered, with a friend, heading south one summer and renting a big tent to hold “revivals” outside of small towns in the Bible Belt. Just to see how much we could clean up. Never did it; we were fortunate enough to be working and jobs were scarce back then for liberal arts grads.
If you want a nice expose of how gullible some of those rural hicks were back then, look for an obscure 1967 George C. Scott movie called “The Flim Flam Man.” Set in the 1930s, it is another Scott classic.
Or the earlier Elmer Gantry, starring Burt Lancaster at his best. So you’re a conservative liberal arts grad? That explains a lot! Where do you keep your unicorn?
Just a sec. Let me put that through the HD15 Republitron3000 Translation Unit for you:
Maybe the God-fearing Real Americans of Lord Jesus Christ’s own country and/or the True Party of Liberty will finally get tired of having liberty-loving freedom juice drinkers for their representative.
“This fund is not listed as a corporation with the Colorado Secretary of State. If it’s not a real corporation in Colorado, it can’t report to the IRS.”
This is not accurate. A corporation can be incorporated in any U.S. state, or in a foreign country, for that matter, and can still report to the IRS. For example, I once represented a German software company with offices in Grand Junction, Colorado that reported its U.S. source income to the IRS and the Colorado Department of Revenue each year.
It isn’t at all uncommon for corporations that do business in Colorado to be incorporated in Delaware, Nevada, or other jurisdictions. For example, it wouldn’t be surprising if GJK, Inc. was a corporation incorporated in another U.S. state while Klingenschmitt was stationed in that state while he was a Navy Chaplin, which he has continued to use the corporation after relocating to Colorado Springs (which is not known for its large U.S. Navy presence for obvious reasons).
Usually, non-Colorado corporations register with the Colorado Secretary of State for authority to do business in the state of Colorado. But, the only meaningful legal penalty for failing to do so is that you cannot commence a lawsuit, or prosecute a counterclaim in a lawsuit, without registering as an entity authorized to do business in the state of Colorado. (Some Colorado business licenses also require a filing with the Colorado Secretary of State as a foreign corporation, but many legitimate businesses do not require business licenses.) So far as I know, there is not even a fine that is payable for conducting business through a foreign corporation in Colorado, apart from this requirement.
Now, if a corporation not incorporated in Colorado conducts business in Colorado, that corporation must still pay state and federal taxes on the Colorado source income. But, it wouldn’t necessarily show up in the Colorado Secretary of State’s records.
Admittedly, it is certainly possible that GJK, Inc. is not, in fact, incorporated anywhere, which would be a misrepresentation, although not a very material one, because in that case the income would still be taxable to Klingenschmitt as an individual. But, that is not at all an obvious conclusion from the facts cited in this post.
Thanks for the pointer, ohwilleke. Acting on it, I did in fact find GJK, Inc in Dover, Delaware, with the same address and phone number as Diener Consultants. Diener, as I said, also has a branch office in Parker, CO.
So it’s reasonable to surmise that GJK exists as an account with Diener. He started the corporation while he was still negotiating with the Navy for how much he would settle for (he didn’t actually “sacrifice his pension” as he claims).
I don’t want to invest any of my own money or put my real name out there to investigate further – so it’s on the IRS to track down that $800K Klingenschmitt says that he earned last year in his journalistic endeavors.
Diener Consultants has a sleazy reputation for earning huge revenues, but paying out almost nil, so again, that’s on the IRS to try to collect from them. The only people madder at Diener than immigrant advocates or the left are the immigrant-haters on the right. For example, one poor slob mortgaged his house to build a border fence with the Minutemen, in a Diener-brokered deal. Guess what? No fence- and no money back. So sad, too bad.
Maybe Klingenschmitt is lying about earning 800K, or maybe he’s lying about fully paying taxes on his corporation. Maybe he’s telling the truth about both.
But he is certainly lying about Pray in Jesus Name building an orphanage in India, although he brags about it on every piece of campaign or PIJN literature out there. Perhaps the Rocketfunding site made a small donation, although all of their other “funded projects” are so noted. That’s hardly “building an orphanage”.
There are no charitable donations on PIJN’s 990 form. And Gordon K was very clear that it was to come through the auspices of PIJN, not through a church or any other organization. The Rocketfunding account was named Pray in Jesus Name. If I feel like digging further, that is where I would start.
Truth to tell, I’m disappointed in Klingenschmitt. I thought that he was a deluded fanatic, probably mentally unstable, but a true believer. I still think he’s all of that, but now I think he’s also a huckster and a con artist, aided by the grand convoluted infrastructure of right wing religious/political fundraising schemes and scams.
“I think he’s also a huckster and a con artist, aided by the grand convoluted infrastructure of right wing religious/political fundraising schemes and scams.”
I have believed this about Klingenschmitt from the beginning. That fundraising infrastructure you mention is responsible for a lot of what goes on and doesn’t make much sense…like sooo many Republican candidates, as an example. Republicans like Gingrich and Huckabee have shown the entire party how you can be a candidate/grifter and live exceptionally well on the political contributions of those whom you can scare.
Closer to home, we have this assclown…and a slew of others (including the guy who set the bar in Colorado.. former state senator Steve King) who are more than happy to live well of the generosity of goobers.
Although Klingenschmitt promised to suspend his ministry for six weeks, he has uploaded several new videos onto his youtube channel as of April 1, and is promoting them on his social media accounts.. Each one contains links to his “Fax petitions to Congress” racket. His latest prediction, chronicled by Right Wing Watch, is that twenty percent of Americans will be homosexual within 100 years.
Suckers are invited to donate to Klingenschmitt in order to fax petitions about “religious liberty” to Congress.
I mean, why not keep on milking the rubes for their donations – it’s what he knows how to do. The voters of District 15 may want him to actually do legislative work, but that isn’t exactly his priority.
April 02, 2015 04:34 PM UTC
20 Comments
Have a feeling Gordon is going to be sorry he decided to indulge in a political career. Brings a lot of scrutiny he probably could have done without. All of the above could make cutting him lose conveniently easy for his party.
Quality work Pols! Keep up the pressure- time for a recall!
Look again. Should say…. Quality work mamajama55.
Here’s the orphanage video, which I couldn’t get to post in the diary. It also looks as though some emergency editing was done on the publicly searchable episode 0037, cutting it down to one minute.
But here’s the original.
Cash rules everything around me.
C.R.E.A.M., get the money.
Dolla, dolla bill, y’all!
Great leaping Jehosephat, what the hell is Ephraim ever gonna’ do now without his chariots ???? . . .
As for you MamaJ, the vile demons of factual internet research have corrupted and enfouled your mortal soul . . .
. . . good work !!!
Well done, Mama. Hope the press picks up on this.
Thanks…We’ll see how this plays out.
Nice!
This is starting to get good, MamaJ. If you ever get tired of teaching, you could have a second career as an investigative reporter; or a P.I.
I agree that this is good research. It also confirms my long held feeling; as an astute student of the religious right; that Klingenschmitt is like 90% + of other prominent religious righties. They’re in it for the money. And they’re definitely CINOs (Conservative In Name Only).
In the mid-1970s, when I still lived in my home state of Indiana, I pondered, with a friend, heading south one summer and renting a big tent to hold “revivals” outside of small towns in the Bible Belt. Just to see how much we could clean up. Never did it; we were fortunate enough to be working and jobs were scarce back then for liberal arts grads.
If you want a nice expose of how gullible some of those rural hicks were back then, look for an obscure 1967 George C. Scott movie called “The Flim Flam Man.” Set in the 1930s, it is another Scott classic.
C.H.B.
Or the earlier Elmer Gantry, starring Burt Lancaster at his best. So you’re a conservative liberal arts grad? That explains a lot! Where do you keep your unicorn?
Maybe the voters of HD15 and/or the Colorado GOP will finally get tired of having tax-cheating scumbags for their representative…
Excellent work, MJ55!
Just a sec. Let me put that through the HD15 Republitron3000 Translation Unit for you:
Seems a bit less likely.
“This fund is not listed as a corporation with the Colorado Secretary of State. If it’s not a real corporation in Colorado, it can’t report to the IRS.”
This is not accurate. A corporation can be incorporated in any U.S. state, or in a foreign country, for that matter, and can still report to the IRS. For example, I once represented a German software company with offices in Grand Junction, Colorado that reported its U.S. source income to the IRS and the Colorado Department of Revenue each year.
It isn’t at all uncommon for corporations that do business in Colorado to be incorporated in Delaware, Nevada, or other jurisdictions. For example, it wouldn’t be surprising if GJK, Inc. was a corporation incorporated in another U.S. state while Klingenschmitt was stationed in that state while he was a Navy Chaplin, which he has continued to use the corporation after relocating to Colorado Springs (which is not known for its large U.S. Navy presence for obvious reasons).
Usually, non-Colorado corporations register with the Colorado Secretary of State for authority to do business in the state of Colorado. But, the only meaningful legal penalty for failing to do so is that you cannot commence a lawsuit, or prosecute a counterclaim in a lawsuit, without registering as an entity authorized to do business in the state of Colorado. (Some Colorado business licenses also require a filing with the Colorado Secretary of State as a foreign corporation, but many legitimate businesses do not require business licenses.) So far as I know, there is not even a fine that is payable for conducting business through a foreign corporation in Colorado, apart from this requirement.
Now, if a corporation not incorporated in Colorado conducts business in Colorado, that corporation must still pay state and federal taxes on the Colorado source income. But, it wouldn’t necessarily show up in the Colorado Secretary of State’s records.
Admittedly, it is certainly possible that GJK, Inc. is not, in fact, incorporated anywhere, which would be a misrepresentation, although not a very material one, because in that case the income would still be taxable to Klingenschmitt as an individual. But, that is not at all an obvious conclusion from the facts cited in this post.
Thanks for the pointer, ohwilleke. Acting on it, I did in fact find GJK, Inc in Dover, Delaware, with the same address and phone number as Diener Consultants. Diener, as I said, also has a branch office in Parker, CO.
So it’s reasonable to surmise that GJK exists as an account with Diener. He started the corporation while he was still negotiating with the Navy for how much he would settle for (he didn’t actually “sacrifice his pension” as he claims).
I don’t want to invest any of my own money or put my real name out there to investigate further – so it’s on the IRS to track down that $800K Klingenschmitt says that he earned last year in his journalistic endeavors.
Diener Consultants has a sleazy reputation for earning huge revenues, but paying out almost nil, so again, that’s on the IRS to try to collect from them. The only people madder at Diener than immigrant advocates or the left are the immigrant-haters on the right. For example, one poor slob mortgaged his house to build a border fence with the Minutemen, in a Diener-brokered deal. Guess what? No fence- and no money back. So sad, too bad.
Maybe Klingenschmitt is lying about earning 800K, or maybe he’s lying about fully paying taxes on his corporation. Maybe he’s telling the truth about both.
But he is certainly lying about Pray in Jesus Name building an orphanage in India, although he brags about it on every piece of campaign or PIJN literature out there. Perhaps the Rocketfunding site made a small donation, although all of their other “funded projects” are so noted. That’s hardly “building an orphanage”.
There are no charitable donations on PIJN’s 990 form. And Gordon K was very clear that it was to come through the auspices of PIJN, not through a church or any other organization. The Rocketfunding account was named Pray in Jesus Name. If I feel like digging further, that is where I would start.
Truth to tell, I’m disappointed in Klingenschmitt. I thought that he was a deluded fanatic, probably mentally unstable, but a true believer. I still think he’s all of that, but now I think he’s also a huckster and a con artist, aided by the grand convoluted infrastructure of right wing religious/political fundraising schemes and scams.
So if we audit Dr. Chaps, do we have to audit the demons who made him do it?
Call them legion for they are many………
“I think he’s also a huckster and a con artist, aided by the grand convoluted infrastructure of right wing religious/political fundraising schemes and scams.”
I have believed this about Klingenschmitt from the beginning. That fundraising infrastructure you mention is responsible for a lot of what goes on and doesn’t make much sense…like sooo many Republican candidates, as an example. Republicans like Gingrich and Huckabee have shown the entire party how you can be a candidate/grifter and live exceptionally well on the political contributions of those whom you can scare.
Closer to home, we have this assclown…and a slew of others (including the guy who set the bar in Colorado.. former state senator Steve King) who are more than happy to live well of the generosity of goobers.
Klingenschmitt’s gravy train rolls on.
Although Klingenschmitt promised to suspend his ministry for six weeks, he has uploaded several new videos onto his youtube channel as of April 1, and is promoting them on his social media accounts.. Each one contains links to his “Fax petitions to Congress” racket. His latest prediction, chronicled by Right Wing Watch, is that twenty percent of Americans will be homosexual within 100 years.
Suckers are invited to donate to Klingenschmitt in order to fax petitions about “religious liberty” to Congress.
I mean, why not keep on milking the rubes for their donations – it’s what he knows how to do. The voters of District 15 may want him to actually do legislative work, but that isn’t exactly his priority.