Did A Group Funded By Exxon Prompt IRS to Audit Greenpeace? [View All]

Steve Stecklow, Wall Street Journal, 03/21/06

Public Interest Watch's most recent tax return, covering the period from 2003-2004, showed that about $120,000 out of the entire $125,000 they received in funding donations were from ExxonMobil.

It's a subscriber service, so I don't know if the article is available for free. I got the original here:

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=2139&topicId=100023186&docId=l:367470259&isSearch=true

Two and a half years ago, Public Interest Watch, a self-described watchdog of nonprofit groups, wrote to the Internal Revenue Service urging the agency to audit Greenpeace and accusing the environmental group of money laundering and other crimes.

Last September, the IRS began a months-long audit of the U.S. arm of Greenpeace, known for steering its boats in the way of whaling ships and oil tankers. This month, Greenpeace says, it received notice from the IRS that the group "continues to qualify for exemption from federal income tax" as a nonprofit entity.

Greenpeace says an IRS auditor told it that the PIW letter triggered the audit. The IRS won't say how it decided to audit Greenpeace.

What is clear is where PIW has gotten a lot of its funding: Exxon Mobil Corp., the giant oil company that has long been a target of Greenpeace protests.