The accountant for Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation seems to have finally found his stride, as Weinstein’s charity has filed its last two public disclosures in relatively record time.

That said, the rest of the story is just about the same. Despite the fact the finances of Mikey Weinstein’s “charity” have been publicly criticized (and again, just recently), his ethically suspect practices continue.

As in prior years, in 2019 the largest expense for Weinstein’s self-founded “charity” was his own compensation, totaling $364,241. That’s in line with what he paid himself in 2018. The MRFF’s total ‘take’, however, actually fell to $663,335. Though the “charity’s” income was down substantially, Weinstein’s pay remained essentially the same, meaning the direct compensation for his “work” at the MRFF was a solid 54.9% of its revenue, one of the highest percentages to date.

(In defending his exorbitant salary — which the Military Times previously called “unheard of” — Mikey said

My salary is perfectly in line with a ton of other folks that do what they do.

However, Weinstein failed to cite a single “other folk” of that “ton” with whom his salary is “in line,” while it has been repeatedly shown that other charities pay their primary leaders substantially less as a percentage of total revenue.)

In 2020, Weinstein’s largest expense was – you guessed it – his own compensation. This year it was down slightly, to a reported total of $314,160, while his revenue was up slightly, to $680,230 – making Weinstein’s direct compensation 46% of every dollar acquired by his charity. The $50,000 reduction in Weinstein’s salary appears to be the primary reason that the MRFF was in the black for 2020 – after operating in the red for the prior two years.

(As an aside, it’s worth remembering that for all the ‘grassroots’ claims Mikey Weinstein makes, much of what he receives appears to be lateral donations from other charities or other sources of income, not individual donors. For example, The Community Foundation of North Louisiana, which is supposed to be a local charity, gave the New Mexico-based MRFF $30,000 in 2019. It appears Weinstein has made a concerted effort to hunt for grants and other sources of income.)

Again, those numbers only account for the direct compensation Weinstein reported. Other “indirect” or non-“compensation” funds that flowed from the MRFF to Weinstein would make the total amount of money going to Mikey Weinstein a substantially larger percentage of its total “charitable” donations. However, those numbers are sometimes a bit opaque. For example, as he reported for the first time in 2018, Mikey Weinstein – who appears to do all work from his own home office – has admitted he leases office space to his own charity (through yet another company “MIBON Consulting and Investment, LLC“). The charge for “occupancy” reported each year is around $35,000.

Remember, Mikey Weinstein receives tax-deductible charitable donations that pay his direct compensation, accountant, travel expenses, security, and even his phone bill. In other words, not only does he take home a massive paycheck as a percentage of the donations he solicits, but the “charity” also seems to act as a veritable expense account for virtually any other thing Weinstein wants to pay for. The MRFF “spends” almost every cent it receives, but what does it actually do to warrant those expenditures? Publicly, the MRFF does almost nothing, beyond having Mikey put out vitriolic emails every now and then.

What was he possibly doing — programmatically, in support of his “charitable” mission — that ate up more than $650,000 in expenses in 2020?

It suspiciously looks like almost nothing.

Most of the MRFF’s major expenses appear to be for contracts or contractors. For example, Weinstein lists a single “research” expense of $38,924 in 2020 – a line that Chris Rodda has previously admitted was her pay (apparently as a 1099-contractor, which helps Mikey avoid payroll taxes and other employment expenses). Similarly, Weinstein has repeatedly listed an expense of about $42,000 for undefined “volunteer support” – the consistency of which from year to year makes it seem it may be another contract position.

In 2020 Mikey Weinstein finally admitted that he was paying out about $134,000 for legal services. In what was surely just a coincidence, in prior years, a similar amount to that same cost had been obscured under “other/professional fees” – a line that suddenly became zero in 2020. Frankly, that’s the line that Weinstein should be most proud of. If, in fact, those legal fees are exclusively covering “program services” in support of the mission of his “charity,” that line is the most justifiable expense he has.

Of course, admitting that would result in two problems:

First, that the MRFF’s legal fees don’t appear to be producing $130,000 worth of legal action in a year (to wit, the MRFF hasn’t filed a lawsuit in years).

Second, if the MRFF is hiring a lawyer/law firm to perform $130,000 worth of legal services in a year, it undermines Weinstein’s justification for his own exorbitant compensation. He’s long claimed he works 105 hours a week (that’s 15 hours a day, every day, every year) doing essentially everything — including running a side business that receives money from the charity he also runs. (If he’s working 15-hour days, kind of makes you wonder if drinking that beer in the photo above was on the clock.) He even went so far as to say his wife Bonnie has a title but he is the one that actually does the work, which likely led to an awkward marriage moment.

But if the MRFF is hiring out legal services, what is it he actually does, exactly?

Fling alliterative adjectives at his webcam?

MRFF Compensation to Mikey Weinstein:

2005: Formed
2006: $116,330
2007: $0
2008: $252,485
2009: $296,232
2010: $218,201
2011: $252,681
2012: $273,355
2013: $299,634
2014: $244,232
2015: $264,492
2016: $289,868
2017: $288,434
2018: $343,225
2019: $364,241
2020: $314,160
2021: Not yet reported.

Total: $3,817,570

Prior tax year discussions: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.

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