Rev. Al Sharpton, just like Rev Jesse Jackson, have a money train.  They live the high life and yet they portray themselves as simple “community organizers.”  How do they do it?

It’s actually a very simple formula, it’s called “Greenmail.”

The term originated with the hostile takeover boom of corporations back in the 80s.  Here’s what Investopedia says about it.

An antitakeover measure that arises when a large block of stock is held by an unfriendly company that is threatening a hostile takeover. Greenmail is a term that applies to mergers and acquisitions, and refers to the money that is paid by the target company to another company, known as a corporate raider, that has purchased a majority of the target company’s stock. The greenmail payment is made in an attempt to stop the takeover bid. The target company is forced to repurchase the stock at a substantial premium (the greenmail payment) to prevent the takeover….

Like blackmail, greenmail is money that is paid to an entity to make it stop an aggressive behavior.

The key is the final sentence, and The Revs have made a fortune doing it.

The scam works like this;

Through his organization, the National Action Network, Sharpton approaches a company like AT&T, McDonald’s, Verizon or Walmart.  He finds some “issue” that can generate negative publicity for the target company, for instance, their ratio of black women in management positions.  He goes to the senior management of the company and explains how their actions are racist and sexist and that they need to work with NAN (in Jesse Jackson’s case it’s the Rainbow Coalition, but it’s the same scam) to develop policies that will rectify this wrong.

There’s a clear threat involved in the meeting.  If the target company doesn’t work with NAN, Sharpton will organize community action against them.  There will be demonstrations at company offices and events all over the country.  Sharpton will speak out against their racist/sexist policies and a compliant media will have the demonstrations on the front page of every major newspaper in the land as well as gobbling hours and hours of 24×7 cable news time.

The cable outlets – primarily MSNBC and CNN – have hours and hours to fill and not much of substance to fill them with.  Stories about how a big, powerful company like Verizon is conspiring to keep qualified minority groups on the plantation are great filler.

The key to Sharpton’s scheme is that the company, to avoid the inevitable bad publicity that will go on until they cave, not only initiates new policies to address the racism/sexism in their organization, they make a donation to the National Action Network, and in many instances they hire NAN, or a NAN affiliate controlled by Sharpton and his friends, as “consultants” to make sure that the new policies are being followed.  Those are “no-show” jobs as long as the money keeps flowing into NAN.

Sharpton, through his very high profile connections as an “advisor” to President Obama – he’s visited the White House more than 70 times in the last six years – has honed the art of the con to a fine edge.  He doesn’t even have to make the initial contact anymore.

Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal (at left, leaving her meeting with Sharpton) met with the activist preacher after leaked e-mails showed her making racially charged comments about President Obama. Pascal was under siege after a suspected North Korean cyber attack pressured the studio to cancel its release of “The Interview,” which depicts the assassination of dictator Kim Jong-un.

Pascal and her team were said to be “shaking in their boots” and “afraid of the Rev,” The Post reported.

No payments to NAN have been announced, but Sharpton and Pascal agreed to form a “working group” to focus on racial bias in Hollywood.

Sony may be just meal ticket Sharpton needs right now.  While President Obama’s IRS were diligently making sure that Tea Party groups didn’t get their 501c organizations approved and groups like True the Vote were being harassed with audits from every governmental agency you could imagine (and a few you probably couldn’t) Rev Al and his National Action Network were busy running a tax bill big enough to choke a horse.

Years of massive corruption by the man known for stirring up race relations and making them worse are finally being exposed. While flying around the country first class, dressed in lavish suits, and most recently stirring the pot in Ferguson, Mo., Al Sharpton has avoided paying millions in taxes – that would have landed the rest of us in prison. The situation is so egregious that even the left-wing New York Times finally wrote a long article last week exposing Sharpton’s tax evasion as well as graft and crime going all the way back to his teenage years.

The Times found there is currently more than $4.5 million in state and federal tax liens against Sharpton and his for-profit businesses. That number apparently doesn’t even include the amount owed by his nonprofit, the National Action Network (NAN). According to the Times, “Mr. Sharpton has regularly sidestepped the sorts of obligations most people see as inevitable, like taxes, rent and other bills.”

Remember, this story broke in the New York Times.  Of course, they haven’t followed up on it and Sharpton denies it’s a problem.  We would honestly have to agree that it isn’t a problem.  At least not for Sharpton.  After all, he’s a close and trusted advisor to President Obama.

Will anybody ever stand up to the Rev Al?  That’s a question best answered by Amy Pascal.  We’re not holding our breath.

By WhatDidYouSay.org