FISHY BUSINESS

Gingrich Charity Paid His For-Profit Company

Watchdog calls it an “abuse of the system.”

Hot on the heels of a staff implosion, presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich may have a new problem. A nonprofit charity he founded apparently paid some $220,000 to one of his own for-profit companies, buying books and DVDs produced by the former House speaker. Although the allegations might not be illegal, a charity watchdog says that if true, “this is an abuse of the American charitable organization system." Since leaving Congress, Gingrich and his wife Callista have built a massive and profitable complex of organizations, both non- and for-profit. In the 1990s, Gingrich was censured and fined $300,000 by the House for using money from a tax-exempt organization to pay for political activities—although the IRS cleared him of wrongdoing.