(CBS) ACORN calls itself the nation's largest grassroots community organization, with more than 400,000 members.
It helps low-income Americans find affordable housing and it receives tens of millions in government funding. But, as CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports, that may be coming to an end, thanks to undercover videos that have sparked a huge scandal.
The videos reportedly recorded late July and early August appear to show ACORN employees in several big cities including Baltimore, Washington and New York, advising a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute.
The employees are heard telling the couple how to avoid paying taxes and how to qualify for a mortgage on a home the couple plan to use as a brothel.
"And if anyone asks you your business is a performing artist, which you are, okay, so you are not lying," says one of the ACORN workers caught on the tape. "Performing artist. So stop saying prostitution. Got it."
ACORN says the workers caught on tape were fired but contends the videos were illegally obtained, doctored and deceptive and is threatening legal action against the undercover filmmakers posing as the couple.
"We are experiencing the modern-day version of McCarthyism - 'Are you now or have you ever been associated with ACORN?'" said Bertha Lewis, ACORN's CEO.
But long-term damage to the reputation of the poverty rights organization may already be done. Monday night the Democratic-controlled Senate voted 83-7 to deny ACORN access to millions of dollars in federal housing funds. - CBS News Story
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