Acorn Ready to File Bankruptcy

When James O'Keefe can convince your workers that he's a pimp and elicit all sorts of ill-advised advice, it's probably not an indicator that business is booming. And indeed, insiders tell the New York Times that Acorn will announce its pending bankruptcy this weekend. At least half of the group's state chapters have disbanded since the pimp scandal, while other major arms are splitting off.

Though Acorn had been plagued by mismanagement and fraud accusations for years, funding for the community-action group dissipated after the video broke, with Congress, the Census Bureau, and the IRS all dropping it like a hot potato. “That 20-minute video ruined 40 years of good work,” says a former Acorn exec.