Print'Shakedown Sharpton' up to his old tricks
In some alternate universe, Al Sharpton would be wearing prison stripes and punching out license plates somewhere in upstate New York.
Instead, he is feted as an icon of the civil rights movement and celebrated as an upstanding citizen. He has a TV show and a radio show, he pens op-eds in leading newspapers and websites, and he is a heavy hitter in the Democratic Party.
Except he's a crook, a charlatan, and a flim-flam man all rolled into one.
“He’s a crook, he’s a fraud, and that’s all he is,” complains Reggie Anders Sr., who sought out the Rev. Al Sharpton for help resolving a 2009 discrimination dispute with Verizon.
“He didn’t do anything he promised,” Anders said Saturday by phone from Mesa, Ariz. “Absolutely nothing.”
Anders reached out to Sharpton early last year on the advice of his own minister, the Rev. David Wade of Phoenix. Wade knew Franklyn Richards, the chairman of Sharpton’s National Action Network, and set up a meeting. Anders and his pastor flew east for the sitdown at NAN headquarters in Harlem in March 2015.
“I thought he was an honest guy,” Anders said of meeting Sharpton. “I thought he would do what he said he would do.”
Sharpton promised to go to bat for him against Verizon, a trucking client of Anders he had accused of discrimination and breach of contract in a federal suit that was dismissed in 2014.
Sharpton would “set up mediation meetings” and if need be “put the matter to the media” and even blast the telecom giant on his weekly radio broadcast, according to Anders’ lawsuit, filed Friday in Manhattan federal court. All Anders had to do was hand over $16,000. Sharpton was very clear about how he wished to be paid, Anders told The Post. “He wanted cash only. He didn’t say why.”
But The Rev was not clear at all about one thing — that Verizon and other major corporations had been paying Sharpton and NAN thousands of dollars in donations.
Anders said he was shocked to read a Post exclusive in August 2015 about how companies paid Sharpton what amounted to “protection” money, and companies that didn’t donate, such as GM, were threatened with bad press or NAN-promoted boycotts.
“I had no idea that he was in bed with Verizon,” Anders told The Post. When Anders called to ask about the inaction on his case, and about the Post exposé, Sharpton went ballistic, the trucker said.
“He said people write stuff about him all the time,” Anders said. “Then for a year and a half he strung us along.”
So where's the cash, Al? Almost certainly it's been spent on fancy clothes, five-star hotel rooms, and A-list restaurants. Working for poverty-stricken blacks is hard work, so why not reward yourself with some luxury perks? And considering how long Sharpton has spit in the face of the IRS by avoiding paying his "fair share" of taxes, the chances of Sharpton having reported that cash "donation" to the taxman are slim and none.
The "Sharpton Shakedown" is familiar to most major American corporations, who see nothing to gain by challenging him. You have to wonder how much illicit cash is passed on to the the good reverend from America's public-spirited companies, given Sharton's standard operating procedure of boycott threats and unfavorable media coverage.
Exposé after exposé has been written about Sharpton, only to have the networks and media outlets ignore the proof of his criminality. His victims are strewn across the landscape of American society – forgotten and ignored. He is easily the most despicable person in public life and will no doubt be allowed to continue his nefarious schemes to defraud the public.
