ACORN, the community activist group that fell under a torrent of criticism last year, declared Chapter Seven bankruptcy Tuesday, the organization announced.
Congress cut off funding for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now in 2009 after conservative activists used a hidden camera to record workers giving advice to a purported pimp and prostitute trying to obtain a housing loan.
“The ongoing political onslaught caused irreparable harm,” ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said in a statement Tuesday.
The group said in March it would close all its affiliates and field offices by April 1st but some of its critics said the group was simply rebranding under different local organizations with new names but the same mission, according to a Fox News report.
ACORN faced a range of allegations over the years, from voter registration fraud in the 2006 and 2008 elections to Republican charges it used public funds for liberal political purposes – charges the group denies, pointing to an investigation it commissioned that found the them baseless.
Lewis blamed the organization’s downfall on “extremist attacks” and “the right-wing media blitz.”