The National Organization for Marriage is Hiding its 2010 Tax Returns

October 28, 2011

Mr. John Eastman
Chairman
National Organization for Marriage
2029 K Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC20006

Re: Missing NOM Tax Returns

Dear Mr. Eastman:

I am writing to alert you that the 2010 federal tax returns (990’s) of the National Organization for Marriage are missing. They were due in May 2011, and an extension was granted until October 15, 2011. We stopped by your Washington, DC office this week and there were no 990’s available for viewing as required by law. They are not up on your web site nor are they on Guidestar.

No IRS returns available again this year at the tiny national NOM office in Washington, DC.

As the newly hired Chairman of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a distinguished law professor and a former law school dean, I had hoped that you came aboard NOM to perhaps try and give it some much needed honesty.

NOM has not filed its tax returns on time with the Internal Revenue Service for both its 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 organizations for any of the four years since it began. I have had to visit your various NOM offices year after year to request them. Others and I have sent certified letters requesting your 990’s and have never received them. I finally had to file multiple complaints with the IRS to force your organization to release its tax returns.

I have been the most prominent watchdog of the National Organization for Marriage since June of 2008, soon after it was established. I watched NOM grow from nothing just over three years ago, to an operation working in over half the states on each and every anti-gay legal and political battle. NOM is also deeply involved in hundreds of state and federal candidate campaigns. Additionally, all your federal lobbying and other activities in Washington, DC rival that of the Family Research Council.

As I am sure you are aware, NOM and its former officers are under investigation by the state of Maine for money laundering on a referendum NOM put on the ballot in November 2009. The active investigation of the National Organization for Marriage by the State Ethics Commission and the State Attorney General is in its third year. I filed the original complaint and testified three times in Maine to make sure that the truth comes out. Only then will we finally learn where all the millions and millions of dollars NOM brings in each year to its two organizations actually comes from.

You can't blame me for being suspicious, since NOM has sued 23 states to try and keep the names of all your funders secret. It was, however, gratifying to see NOM lose its California case this week in federal court (the same case you subpoenaed me in).

So, as NOM’s new Chairman, I am writing you in the hope that finally there may be a modicum of integrity at the National Organization for Marriage. We hope that someone with your distinguished record will act in accordance with the law, unlike your predecessors Robby George and Maggie Gallagher.

We assume that you will promptly obey federal law and file and release both sets of tax returns.

I anxiously await your reply.

Best regards,

Fred Karger