Freddie Mac, Verizon made Jesse's hit list; the powerful Federal Home Mortgage Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. shared their wealth after the reverend's attacks, 2000 tax returns show

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 27, 2002 | by Kenneth R. Timmerman

But in practice it hasn't worked out quite that way. Two years and $1 million later, Freddie Mac officials say they have had contact with four officials from Rainbow/PUSH. Instead of Jackson's group training pastors, Freddie Mac has had to hire external training companies. To date, McHale said, they have trained some 70 to 80 church-affiliated persons identified by Rainbow/PUSH. Jackson's group says the new trainees have exposed between 800 and 1,000 people to the CreditSmart program.

Several pastors contacted by INSIGHT said they had refused to pay the $1,000 membership fee Jackson demanded to join 1,000 Churches Connected because "all Jackson is offering is a group of self-help videos and a Xeroxed course plan." When Freddie Mac first announced the partnership, the lender explained that the $1,000 membership fee was intended to defray the cost of program materials, seminars and services, and that each member-church would receive "a personal computer and financial-planning software." As it turned out, the software and computers were donated separately by Compaq Computer Corp. Jackson's group "set up an 800-number fulfillment center so churches can get the workbooks, teachers and materials from them," McHale said, but that appears to be it.

What about that commitment to purchase loans worth $1 billion for new homeowners. "That's our hope over the next five years" said McHale. "It is the industry experience that roughly one in 10 people who take this type of class successfully purchase a home within one year of taking the class." So far none have applied, although McHale said the lender was hoping to receive the first loan applications by June.

It's not as if financial-literacy initiatives such as CreditSmart weren't important. "They are very worthwhile things," says analyst Canfield. "It's important to help people understand how crucial their credit record is to getting an affordable loan." And there is a real gap between home ownership among blacks, which runs around 47 percent, and among whites, which is 72 percent. The question is whether the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition has been able to deliver, or whether the Freddie Mac board -- which at the time the grant was made included Clinton appointees Rahm Emmanuel and Howard Ickes -- merely intended to buy Jackson's support.

INSIGHT faxed a series of questions to Rainbow/PUSH and was told by Jackson assistant John Mitchell that the group's financial department was handling all details of the Freddie Mac grant. But Mitchell declined to provide specific information on how the money had been spent or how many people had been trained.

Other details revealed in the Jackson Rainbow/PUSH tax returns:

* A $553,000 grant from an unspecified donor paid to Rainbow/PUSH for AIDS-related advocacy programs;

* A $500,000 grant from Citigroup. (Chief Executive Officer Sanford I. Weill became a major financial donor and political supporter of Jackson after the reverend agreed not to oppose the megamerger between Travelers Group and Citibank in 1998, and has sponsored Jackson events and programs ever since);