Another interesting Pickwick post in Brainstorm:
1. Casey, you listed yourself as sole director in a report you filed with the New Hampshire Secretary of State on 24th December 2005 [1]. You again stated publicly on 28th January 2007 that you were still sole director [2]. This violated New Hampshire statute RSA 292:6-a according to which “the board of directors of a charitable nonprofit corporation shall have at least 5 voting members” [3].
On 14th November 2007 you eventually filed Annual Reports for the years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 with the Attorney General of New Hampshire, where under penalties of perjury you falsely stated the composition of the Board of Directors in 2004, 2005 and 2006 to be: Casey Fenton, Daniel M Hoffer, Leonardo Silveira, Sebastien G LeTuan.
My advice is to file a correction immediately. An investigation for perjury in connection with filed Annual Reports may have unfortunate consequences for the application for federal tax exempt status according to section 501(c)(3) IRS code.
2. New Hampshire statute also says in RSA 292:6-a that “No employee of a charitable nonprofit corporation shall hold the position of chairperson or presiding officer of the board” [3]. This means, Casey, that you need to resign either your chairmanship of the board, or your employment.
My advice is to do it immediately. An unlawful composition of the board or unlawful tenure of the board’s chairman can have unfortunate consequences for the validity of board decisions or signatures on documents, like for instance the application for federal tax exempt status according to section 501(c)(3) IRS Code.
[1] www.sos.nh.gov/imaging/9649082.pdf
[2] groups.google.com/group/cs-dev-public/msg/c8d070ae5333e5f4?
[3] www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XXVII/292/292-6-a.htm
casey is the root of the whole culture of crookedness.
upon the VERY FIRST incarnation of cs, he, certainly knowing its a flat out lie, claimed to be a 501c3.
(february 11th, 2003)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030211030647/http://couchsurfing.com/
Given the date (if I’m correct, that was only just after CS was launched for the first time, I’d be willing to believe that was an honest mistake, and that he at that time wasn’t aware of the legal issues pertaining to this claim. Trouble is, we’re 4 years further now, and still no credible attempt has been made to sort this out.
point i was trying to make:
you dont run an organization or company without knowing its status, when you know you havent specifically applied for something then normal common sense tells you you dont have this status just because you pull it out of your ass while designing a webpage.
it also took over a year to change and remove the 501c3 claim, it is in line with so many other presumed claims that are just not in touch with reality, i noticed it is a common occurance in the established leadership culture in cs.
“you dont run an organization or company without knowing its status”
Exactly.