SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: JANE FONDA CHARITY SCANDAL

Jane_stry

 JANE FONDA is caught up in a shocking charity cheating scandal!

The contro­versial actress is worth a stag­gering $120 million, but financial documents obtained by The ENQUIRER show her charity didn’t make a single donation to any cause for five straight years. Yet government rules demand that charities disburse five percent a year to worthwhile causes, which, based on the present value of the nonprofit organization’s assets, could be as high as $200,000.

“At best, it makes Jane look like Scrooge, but at worst it raises the question of just what is going on with Jane and her charities,” said an insider. The scandal burst into the open when federal income tax returns for the Jane Fonda Foundation came to light, revealing its startling inactivity.

The Oscar winner, 76, serves as the foundation’s president and chairman of the board and, according to the same documents, devotes an av­erage of 10 hours a week to running the organization. But it’s hard to know exactly what she does because for years it wasn’t handing out money.

 

The Atlanta-based charity, which was founded in 2004, got off to a good start in its first two years by making hefty contributions to several causes. But in 2006, it handed out only $1,000 – to the Atlanta Obstetrical and Gynecological Society. From 2007 through to 2011, it distributed ZERO funds, even though it now has almost $800,000 in its coffers, according to tax documents obtained by The ENQUIRER.

“Jane Fonda is caught in a charity cheating scan­dal,” declared Glenn Selig – a nationally renowned expert in crisis management and public relations. “It looks as if she’s involved in the foundation just to make herself look good.”

Over the years, Jane has given generously out of her own pocket to many charities – including the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Associa­tion. But Selig – founder of the Tampa-based firm The Publicity Agency and a former investigative reporter  – says that the current scandal “makes you ask how aware she is of what’s going on in her name.”

Incredibly, this isn’t the first time Fonda has found herself in hot water over charitable activities.

In 1983, The ENQUIRER reported that some rock artists alleged that the fitness guru ripped off a superstar list of performers including The Jacksons, Jimmy Buffett and Billy Ocean. She promised to donate their royalties from appearing on her “Workout” album to cancer research but instead funneled much of it into the political organi­zation of her second husband, Tom Hayden.

A record industry insider estimated the singers wound up signing away as much as $3.9 million in royalties.

Selig pointed out that the scandal can only contribute to the Hollywood legend’s long-standing image problem stem­ming from her 1972 wartime visit to North Vietnam – which earned her the derogatory nickname “Hanoi Jane.”

He predicted: “This new scandal will bring it all up again!”

JANE’s RESPONSE TO CHARGES : When asked for com­ment about Fonda’s latest scandal, her attorney Barry Hirsch told The ENQUIRER: “Between 2004 and 2005, the founda­tion paid out over $900,000. To under­stand the tax law, which is applicable to foundations, you are obligated to pay out five percent of your assets each year. But she paid out way, way, way beyond in those two years and, under the law, she gets a five-year carry-forward. Jane personally contributes hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to charity, in addition to oversee­ing the foundations that contribute to the beneficiaries of those charities. The bottom line is that the foundation didn’t have to make payments out to third parties because they already overpaid those payments from 2005 to 2010.”