The American Democracy Legal Fund (ADLF) sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) yesterday demanding an investigation into new allegations that Tommy Tuberville may have committed perjury by lying on his charity’s 990 tax forms. Yesterday, the Associated Press published a devastating report detailing how Tuberville’s organization, the Tommy Tuberville Foundation, spends an unusually large percentage of its expenses on non-charitable expenses, such as holding an annual golf tournament for Mr. Tuberville to play in.
Upon further review, the ADLF has found:
- From 2015 through 2018, the Tommy Tuberville Foundation reported spending$156,203 on non-charitable expenses while only spending $51,658 on charitable expenses.
- However, in 2018, as Mr. Tuberville was preparing to run for United States Senate, the Foundation suddenly began classifying its previous non-charitable expenses as actual charitable expenses, presumably to inflate the appearance of charitable work.
- The expenses that the Tommy Tuberville Foundation suddenly claimed as being charitable expenses do not meet what the IRS defines as charitable expenses.
The fact that the Tuberville Foundation suddenly began classifying expenses as charitable expenses that it previously said were not suggests that Mr. Tuberville was trying to inflate the charitable work his Foundation actually conducted.
As President of the organization, Tuberville signed the Tommy Tuberville Foundation’s 2018 disclosure that the organization spent 100% of its expenses to the benefit of its charitable program. If he knowingly submitted false information about the foundation’s expenses, he likely committed perjury.
“There is clear evidence that Tommy Tuberville may have committed perjury to deceive Alabama voters in an effort to advance his political career,” said ADLF’s Brad Woodhouse. “Lying on official tax forms is a serious crime, and we believe the IRS must begin an immediate investigation into these allegations of perjury by Tommy Tuberville. The people of Alabama deserve the truth.”
A copy of the complaint can be viewed here.