This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3767

CAIR's corporate charter revoked - loses DC corporate status

December 22, 2008

Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] Loses Its DC Corporate Status

By WILLIAM MAYER and BEILA RABINOWITZ

December 22, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The District of Columbia chapter of CAIR, the Saudi funded Hamas mouthpiece, has lost its corporate status and is according to legal experts, now operating illegally.

This bombshell was provided by DC attorney David Yerushalmi who recently brought a RICO lawsuit against the organization [see, BREAKING - CAIR Hit With RICO Lawsuit - Alleging That Islamist Organization Operates As A Criminal Enterprise].

During preparation for the lawsuit, Yerushalmi discovered that CAIR DC lost its corporate charter in September 2008 and has apparently done nothing to reinstate itself.

As Mr. Yersushalmi explains:

One of the important discoveries emanating from the lawsuit by former CAIR clients against CAIR for fraud and racketeering is the fact that the law firm prosecuting this lawsuit discovered that CAIR's corporate charter in the District of Columbia had been revoked as of September 8, 2008. That means pursuant to DC law that the only thing CAIR can do is engage in those necessary acts to dissolve the corporation and to distribute its assets…it also means per the IRS code, that CAIR is no longer a valid 501c3 tax exempt organization because it is no longer a valid organization."

CAIR undertook a major structural revamp in 2007 when the Islamist pressure group changed its name from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Inc. to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action Network, Inc. This was apparently done as part of an effort to change its non-profit status from 501c4 [which allows a limited amount of political activity] to a 501c3 [which is prohibited from all political activity].

Though there is no evidence that CAIR will not move to become reinstated as a corporate entity; doing so could be more difficult than simply filing the requisite forms, as the IRS might require them to start the non-profit application process from scratch.

On that aspect Mr. Yerushalmi stated, "There is a statutory "reinstatement" provision which will allow CAIR to "fix" its delinquent filings and undo the revocation but that doesn't undo its "illegal" behavior in the interim such as the 14th Annual Dinner and all those contributions paid in between September 8, 2008 and whenever it finally gets around to applying for reinstatement."

With CAIR's links to Islamic terrorism now proven by the November 24 conviction of the Holy Land Foundation, the nation's largest and most far-reaching terror funding prosecution, due both to the organization having been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case as well as its Texas chapter founder, Ghassan Elashi, having been convicted in HLF, CAIR's future is cloudy at best.

In July Parvez Ahmed, CAIR's Chairman resigned stating that he was "burned out," though he did not renounce the organization's Islamist agenda and its refusal to identify Hamas, for example, as a terrorist entity. Additionally, Ahmed Bedier, CAIR's Florida director abruptly resigned last summer, giving rise to speculation that the organization is crumbling from the inside out.

Organizationally CAIR functions as a franchise and its various local and state chapters operate independently. It stands to reason then that at least in the interim they will continue to represent the same twisted message of aggressive Islamic superiority that has motivated CAIR DC since its inception in 1994. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=cairid=12.22.08%2Ehtm

CAIR's corporate charter revoked: From David Yerushalmi, the lawyer who is prosecuting CAIR in a civil suit for fraud, comes the news that the organization has lost its legal standing because the D.C. Corporations Division found it failed to file the necessary papers. In Yerushalmi's words:

CAIR's corporate charter in the District of Coumbia had been revoked as of September 8, 2008. That means pursuant to DC law that the only thing CAIR can do is engage in those necessary acts to dissolve the corporation and to distribute its assets (and to defend itself in litigation for fraud and racketeering). But it also means per the IRS code, that CAIR is no longer a valid 501c3 tax exempt organization because it is no longer a valid organization (see here).

Although a statutory "reinstatement" provision allows CAIR eventually to make up for its missing filings, in the interim the organization has lost the right to conduct business as usual. Yerushalmi writes: "every act by CAIR that is not one toward dissolution is a misdemeanor in the District of Columbia (D.C. Code § 29-301.87). That means its 14th Annual Dinner was illegal; it means its website is illegal; it means that anyone who contributes money after September 8, 2008 thinking CAIR is a legitimate 501c3 organization has been defrauded." (November 30, 2008) http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2004/03/a-cair-miscellany.html

For more on this see an interview with lawyer David Yerushalami "The Last Days of CAIR - Why the Council On American Islamic Relations days are numbered".

http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1E2CA713-7658-4384-B61E-9E017121523C

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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3767