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The Shriners Summary -  Two Years On

By Cassandra 'Sandy' Frost

3-1-8

From http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com

Here is a brief explanation of this investigation
and resultant findings, from which you  can  draw
your own conclusions.

I began investigating the Shriners in March, 2006
after   getting   an   email   from   a   Shriner
whistleblower  who  was  looking for a journalist
willing to listen to his allegations. It  appears
that  he  came  up  against  a  media blackout of
sorts, as it took him three years to find someone
willing  to  evaluate his allegations. It just so
happened that I had  finished  up  a  three  year
investigation  into  the  claims  of  another non
profit group the month before and after  checking
out  the whistleblower and the online analysis of
Shriner tax returns done by a former  IRS  agent,
wrote  back  that  I  was  able  to  hit the deck
running.

In summary, there are  two  Shriners  non  profit
corporations.  First is the fraternity made up of
about 390,000 red Fez wearing men who  drive  the
little  cars  in the parades and meet with secret
handshakes at their 191 mosques or temples. Their
exempt  purpose  is  to  "have  fun while helping
kids" as they support and operate the  charitable
corporation,  the Shriners Hospitals for Children
(SHC), a network of 22  hospitals  that  provides
free   medical   care   to  crippled  and  burned
children. SHC is worth about $11 billion.

This series of articles has evolved from  finding
evidence   of   temple   crime,   tax  fraud  and
retaliating against those who  question  them  in
2006   to,   in   2007,  advancing  the  shameful
possibility that those holding offices of  public
trust  may  have used their positions for private
gain.

Here is a list of findings to  show  how  we  got
from there to here.

2006 findings describe how:

*  The  Shriners  failed to disclose on their 990
exempt   organization    tax    returns    (990s)
information  about  affiliations  with  other non
profit groups such as  Masons,  Knights  Templar,
Jesters, etc.

*  The  Shriners failed to disclose on their 990s
the  misuse  of  charitable  donations  to   fund
multiple  real estate mortgages from the Shriners
Hospitals for  Children  to  Shriner  executives,
officers and employees.

* The Shriners failed to disclose on their 990s a
Congressional lobbyist and  his  activities  that
include  working  on  their  behalf  against  the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

* The Shriners failed to disclose on  their  990s
changes to governing documents.

* The Shriners experienced huge cash losses after
an undisclosed change in governing documents.

*  The   Shriners   fraternal   described   their
activities  to  the  IRS  as a "lodge system that
promotes brotherhood" while their  by-laws  filed
with  the  state  of  Iowa state they oversee and
control the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

* The Shriners Hospitals  for  Children  reported
different  answers  to the same question asked by
the IRS and  the  State  of  Colorado  Charitable
registration   unit,  which  is  where  they  are
incorporated.

* The Shriners network of 191  temples  has  been
granted    over   1,900   non   profit   Employee
Identification Numbers or EINs, most of which are
not required to file tax returns

*  The Shriners have, for over a decade, punished
and retaliated against those who  question  their
expenditures and finances.

*  The  Shriners  used  a  defamation  lawsuit to
silence a whistleblower and a tax analyst.

* Shriner leaders openly discussed crime,  sexual
harassment,  advised  the  members to break HIPPA
laws  and   told   offensive   jokes   at   their
Treasurer's Association meetings.

*  Leaders  advised the Treasurers Association to
"disclose the minimum to the IRS."

* Shriner executives prosecuted only 19% of known
crimes  because "they don't want the bad press or
their names in the newspapers."

* Shriner treasurers learned of ongoing crimes at
the Treasurers Association meetings, some of whom
are sworn to uphold the law of the land  but  are
expected  to  turn  a  blind  eye  to protect the
brotherhood.

2007 findings that describe how:

* The Shriners used "kangaroo courts"  to  punish
whistleblowers  in  an  effort to intimidate them
into silence rather than punishing the criminals.
(This  was  also  the subject of a New York Times
front page article that ran on March, 19, 2007)

*  The  Omar  Shrine   temple   threw   out   the
subordinate  Dorchester  Shrine  club's officers,
replaced  them  with  their  own  "yes  men"  and
instead   of  sending  money  to  the  hospitals,
instead paid off the club's mortgage.

* The Omar Temple's potentate  used  the  group's
newsletter for free advertising.

*  The  Shrine  Treasurers  meeting  minutes were
taken  offline  after  it  was  discovered   that
ongoing   crime  is  openly  discussed  at  their
meetings but not prosecuted.

* The Gwinnett Shrine Club raised money "for  the
hospitals"   through  illegal  "Texas  Hold  'Em"
tournaments without being registered as a Georgia
charity and without filing tax returns.

*  The  Yaarab Shrine Temple failed to report the
Gwinnett Shrine  club's  illegal  fundraising  on
their group tax returns.

*  The  Shriners  used  a  suspended "for profit"
corporation to organize  and  hold  their  annual
convention.

*  A  secret  group  made  up  of invited Shriner
leaders, The Royal  Order  of  Jesters,  was  the
subject  of  a  complaint  that  accused  them of
holding drunken orgies.

* The fraternity contributed only to 0.5% or  one
half of one percent to the hospital's income.

*  The  Shriners  used their tax-exempt status to
avoid paying over $450,000 in HQ property taxes.

* The Thirteenth Circuit  Court  of  Hillsborough
County,  Florida, filed a motion to dismiss after
the Shriners failed to do anything to "prosecute"
the    defamation   lawsuit   filed   against   a
whistleblowers and a tax analyst.

*  The  Shriners  used  a  defamation  AKA  SLAPP
lawsuit to circumvent reporter shield laws.

* Two Shriner Hospitals for Children received FDA
warning  letters  after  pre-market   inspections
found   that   they  failed  to  obtain  informed
consent, failed to report adverse effects, failed
to  follow protocols, and failed to keep accurate
patient and device records.

* The doctor in charge of  the  clinical  studies
apparently used the non profit resources provided
by both the University  of  Cincinnati  and  SHC,
Cincinnati,  as  well  as  government  grants, to
invent and  patent  a  burn  treatment  that  he,
thorough  his  own biotech start-up company, sold
for $1.5 million with another $4.8 promised after
regulatory approval.

*  This  same  doctor  allegedly failed to recuse
himself as  principal  investigator  after  being
told  to  do so by the Institutional Review Board
overseeing his clinical study.

* A number of Shriner executive's mortgages  were
repaid   in   unusually  short  times  that  also
"randomly coincide" with the "buy low, sell high"
activity  of  a  company who has been marketing a
burn treatment co-developed with SHC.

This year holds the promise of more news digging.

Visit          Sandy's          site          at:
http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com/

Read            her            blog           at:
http://thecassandrafrostcollection.blogspot.com/

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