Need your help and advice. I live in a corrupt town run like Chicago.
I live in a midsize town (38k citizens) outside a large metropolitan city in the South. During the past year, through various interactions with the city, staff and involved citizens, we have discovered what you call at best unethical behavior by the city council members and several staff members. This includes using city bond money designated for special land acquisitions used to buy city council members family’s land, political donor land or surrounding land (protection from development near their large estates), granting special government variances in return for low bid contract work, and more.
The local paper won't report on it because of ties to the city and the city is one of the largest advertisers. So I believe the best approach is to bring light to this via social media. But I need to do this in a way that protects my identity so I can still try and make change through my other citizen groups. There are a couple of council members that cold effectively end my job if they knew I was starting this effort. I have no social media presence. I need to get on FB, Twitter and Instagram. How can I do this without revealing my identity and get accounts that I can use to bring light to these issues and point out all of the BS that is going on? FB seems like the biggest challenge. I have tried a couple of times but my account gets suspended or deleted after a day or so. I am using a VPN as well.
Thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks everyone!
MAGA Trump 2020
Pede:
Don't do ANYTHING until you decide if reporting their actions to the IRS is warranted.
The IRS rewards whistleblowers (good whistleblowers) who report tax fraud that can be acted upon.
You can do this anonymously (the IRS will assign you a number so you can make a claim for the $, which is typically 10% of the under-reported tax payment).
With respect to your comments "special land acquistions" and "protection from development near their large estates" - this sounds like potential fraudulent conservation easement appraisals were submitted to the IRS.
The IRS is eagerly cracking down on these due to the substantial tax deductions. It is difficult for lay people (and most appraisers and lawyers) to understand the appraisals and many that have been accepted by the IRS in the past are now being investigated.
If public funding was used to pay for the appraisals, you, as a taxpayer, can request a copy. Whether or not you will be able to decyper it is another matter.
Most of the value associated with a conservation easement involves the extinguishment of development rights. If bond money was used to pay for these properties, that would likely elevate it if fraud can be proven.