The Uneven STORY UPDATE - - Not even a week after the story b | Clip Artist Films
The Uneven
STORY UPDATE
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Not even a week after the story broke in multiple publications, Moak rebuttals with an open letter that makes him look even more guilty of the “non-profit corruption.
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Steve Moak Responds to Criticism of Charity's Connection to His Business; In Response, Ben Quayle Calls for New Legislation
JAMES KING AUGUST 23, 2010
Congressional candidate Steve Moak has finally responded to questions posed to him last week by one of his opponents in the crowded District 3 Congressional primary. In short, Moak never disclosed a conflict of interest to the IRS when a not-for-profit anti-drug charity he founded was pushing the drug tests produced by his for-profit business. Moak sold the business for $25 million and claims there was never anything illegal or unethical about his ties to each business. The criticism is that Moak used his not-for-profit charity as a marketing arm of his for-profit business, resulting in a huge profit when he sold the company. Questions about Moak's charity were first raised by New Times a few weeks ago, so we figured we'd give Moak equal time to defend the criticism. See Moak's letter, in its entirety, after the jump.
The “Letter”
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Some of you may be wondering about Ben Quayle's recent attempt to disparage the charity we founded, notMYkid. This is clearly a way for the Quayle campaign to divert attention away from Ben's real life issues as Steve has taken the lead in the polls. I know many of you have been asked about the questions raised in a negative attack mail piece sent out by the Quayle campaign. Here are the factual responses to these questions.
1. Why didn't you disclose the connection between notMYkid and First Check on IRS statements like you are legally required to? notMYkid has always fully disclosed its relationships with First Check and other organizations. A clerical error appeared on line 80 of notMYkid's original 2007 tax return. An amendment has since been filed by their accounting firm to correct this error.
2. Why didn't you tell donors at the time of the conflict? Steve Moak's position with First Check was widely known and never concealed from donors, nor was it a conflict.
3. Why did you use 80% of donors' money in 2005 to promote First Check? No money, including contributions from donors, has been used by notMYkid to promote First Check or to purchase products from the company. The majority of contributions received in 2005 were spent on drug prevention programs, which is the mission of notMYkid.
4. Why was the reference to you being the Chairman of First Check suddenly removed from the notMYkid website? The reference to Steve Moak as Chairman of First Check was removed from notMYkid's website because it was out of date. Steve's involvement with the company ended in 2007.
Keep in mind as I share some facts with you, that notMYkid has been providing prevention education programs in Arizona for over 10 years with only positive community interaction. Only in politics can good deeds be punished. Also keep in mind that everything Deb and I have done in regard to notMYkid and First Check we would do all over again tomorrow as this has helped save thousands of children and families from the scourge of drug abuse. In 1999 after struggling with our son's drug abuse, we founded notMYkid, a 501(c)3, along with addiction specialist Dr. Mark Rohde and a board of directors. One of the primary ways that we discovered our son's drug use was through the use of a home drug test kit. We felt strongly that if we had been testing our son prior to his first use he would have had an acceptable way to say no to peer pressure. Beginning in 2000, Deb and I regularly purchased home drug tests by the case and gave them away to parents for free as part of our presentations to encourage them to not let these doors get opened in their own homes. Parents responded with gratitude for the free tests that we gave them to help in their homes. Deb and I gave away hundreds of drug test kits in those early years to anyone who would listen.
