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The accountant for Michael \u201cMikey\u201d Weinstein\u2019s 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.<\/p>\nThe accountant for Michael \u201cMikey\u201d Weinstein\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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<\/a> (and again<\/a>, just recently), his ethically suspect practices continue.<\/p>\n As in prior years, in 2019<\/strong> the largest expense for Weinstein\u2019s self-founded “charity” was his own compensation, totaling $364,241<\/strong>. That\u2019s in line with what he paid himself in 2018<\/a>. The MRFF\u2019s total \u2018take\u2019, however, actually fell<\/em> to $663,335.<\/strong> Though the \u201ccharity\u2019s\u201d income was down substantially, Weinstein\u2019s pay remained essentially the same, meaning the direct<\/em> compensation for his \u201cwork\u201d at the MRFF was a solid 54.9%<\/strong> of its revenue, one of the highest percentages to date.<\/p>\n (In defending his exorbitant salary — which the Military Times previously called “unheard of<\/a>” — Mikey said<\/a><\/p>\n My salary is perfectly in line with a ton of other folks that do what they do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n However, Weinstein failed to cite a single<\/em> “other folk” of that “ton” with whom his salary is “in line,” while it has been repeatedly shown<\/a> that other charities pay their primary leaders substantially<\/em> less as a percentage of total revenue.)<\/p>\n In 2020,<\/strong> Weinstein\u2019s largest expense was \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 his own compensation. This year it was down slightly, to a reported total of $314,160,<\/strong> while his revenue was up slightly, to $680,230<\/strong> \u2013 making Weinstein\u2019s direct<\/em> compensation 46%<\/strong> of every dollar acquired by his charity. The $50,000 reduction in Weinstein\u2019s salary appears to be the primary reason that the MRFF was in the black for 2020 \u2013 after operating in the red for the prior two years.<\/p>\n (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<\/a>, which is supposed to be a local<\/em> 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.)<\/p>\n Again, those numbers only account for the direct<\/strong><\/em> compensation Weinstein reported. Other \u201cindirect\u201d or non-\u201ccompensation\u201d 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 \u201ccharitable\u201d donations. However, those numbers are sometimes a bit opaque. For example, as he reported for the first time in 2018<\/a>, Mikey Weinstein \u2013 who appears to do all work from his own home office<\/strong> \u2013 has admitted he leases office space to his own charity<\/strong> (through yet another company “MIBON Consulting and Investment, LLC<\/a>“). The charge for \u201coccupancy\u201d reported each year is around $35,000.<\/p>\n 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<\/em> paycheck as a percentage of the donations he solicits, but the \u201ccharity\u201d also seems to act as a veritable expense account for virtually any other<\/em> thing Weinstein wants to pay for. The MRFF \u201cspends\u201d almost every cent it receives, but what does it actually do<\/em> to warrant those expenditures? Publicly, the MRFF does almost nothing, beyond having Mikey put out vitriolic emails every now and then.<\/p>\n What was he possibly doing \u2014 programmatically, in support of his \u201ccharitable\u201d mission \u2014 that ate up more than $650,000 in expenses in 2020?<\/p>\n It suspiciously looks like almost nothing<\/em>.<\/p>\n Most of the MRFF\u2019s major expenses appear to be for contracts or contractors. For example, Weinstein lists a single \u201cresearch\u201d expense of $38,924 in 2020 \u2013 a line that Chris Rodda has previously admitted was her pay<\/a> (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 \u201cvolunteer support\u201d \u2013 the consistency of which from year to year makes it seem it may be another contract position.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cother\/professional fees\u201d \u2013 a line that suddenly became zero in 2020. Frankly, that\u2019s the line that Weinstein should be most proud of. If, in fact, those legal fees are exclusively covering \u201cprogram services\u201d in support of the mission of his \u201ccharity,\u201d that line is the most justifiable expense he has.<\/p>\n Of course, admitting that would result in two problems:<\/p>\n First, that the MRFF\u2019s legal fees don\u2019t appear to be producing $130,000 worth of legal action in a year (to wit, the MRFF hasn\u2019t filed a lawsuit in years).<\/p>\n Second, if the MRFF is hiring a lawyer\/law firm to perform $130,000 worth of legal services in a year, it undermines Weinstein\u2019s justification for his own<\/em> exorbitant compensation. He\u2019s long claimed he works 105 hours a week (that\u2019s 15 hours a day, every<\/em> day, every<\/em> year) doing essentially everything <\/em>— including running a side business that receives<\/em> money from the charity he also runs.<\/em> (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<\/a> his wife Bonnie has a title<\/em> but he<\/em> is the one that actually does the work<\/em>, which likely led to an awkward marriage moment.<\/p>\n But if the MRFF is hiring out<\/em> legal services, what is it he actually does,<\/em> exactly?<\/p>\n Fling alliterative adjectives at his webcam?<\/p>\n MRFF Compensation to Mikey Weinstein:<\/strong><\/p>\n 2005<\/a>: Formed Total:\u00a0$3,817,570<\/strong><\/p>\n Prior tax year discussions: 2018<\/a>, 2017<\/a>, 2016<\/a>, 2015<\/a>, 2014<\/a>, 2013<\/a>, 2012<\/a>, 2011<\/a>, 2010<\/a>, 2009<\/a>, 2008<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The accountant for Michael \u201cMikey\u201d Weinstein\u2019s 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), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2891,1766,3118,1298,175,953,4580,85,2,5218,7,10,171],"class_list":["post-46418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-20-3967302","tag-1766","tag-bonnie-weinstein","tag-charity","tag-chris-rodda","tag-irs","tag-mibon-consulting","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46418"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46478,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46418\/revisions\/46478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2006<\/a>: $116,330
\n2007<\/a>:\u00a0$0<\/a>
\n2008<\/a>: $252,485
\n2009<\/a>: $296,232
\n2010<\/a>: $218,201
\n2011<\/a>: $252,681
\n2012<\/a>: $273,355
\n2013<\/a>: $299,634
\n2014<\/a>: $244,232
\n2015<\/a>:\u00a0$264,492
\n2016<\/a>:\u00a0$289,868
\n2017<\/a>: $288,434
\n2018<\/a>: $343,225
\n2019<\/a>: $364,241
\n2020<\/a>: $314,160
\n2021: Not yet reported<\/em>.<\/p>\n