Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Withdraws Support for ACORN

The U.S. Congress and several corporate partners are distancing themselves from the community-organizing group Acorn and now Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) has withdrawn their support for the embattled organization.

In a recent statement made to the Wall Street Journal, a Bank of America spokesperson stated that the bank has “suspended current commitments” to Acorn’s Housing division and “will not enter into any further agreements with Acorn or any of its affiliates,” pending a future assessment by the bank of the organization’s operations. The statement continued, “Bank of America takes recent allegations made against Acorn and Acorn Housing Corporation employees very seriously,”

Acorn, short for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has come under significant criticism after the release of undercover videos showing Acorn employees offering advice on setting up sex-trafficking businesses and brothers, as well as avoiding taxes.

Acorn stated that the actions demonstrated on TV were unacceptable and has since fired the workers involved. Acorn has also hired Massachusetts’ former attorney general, Scott Harshbarger, to investigate any misbehavior in the Acorn organization. Many have argued that Acorns actions to clean up its act simply are not enough and that the community organizing group is ripe with corruption.

For the last several years, Bank of America and several other major banks have worked with Acorn Housing on foreclosure-prevention efforts.

Michael Shea, executive director of Acorn Housing, stated “We’re not surprised that our lending partners like Bank of America want assurances that this won’t happen again.” Shea stated that Acorn Housing is setting up ethics training for its 250 employees as part of a new effort to ensure that such “abhorrent” behavior does not continue. Shea hopes that Bank of America and Acorn Housing can continue to work together once Acorn has dealt with its corruption issues.