On Sarah Palin's Alaska Fund Trust

"It's time to release the records of Sarah Palin's Alaska Fund Trust!"
http://ow.ly/1sFPH

[excerpt]

a closer look at the Alaska Trust Fund again.

It has been noted before that Sarah's practical "Legal Defense Fund" is in
fact nothing more than a handy slush-fund for her and her family. The
"Trust Agreement" leaves no open questions in this respect:

"3. Rights of Withdrawal

a) Each of the beneficiaries of this trust, shall, in each calendar year,
have an absolute and unrestricted power to withdraw from this Trust up to
the lesser of the total additions made to this Trust during each calendar
year or an amount in cash or other property (including the cash value of
life insurance policies, if no other cash or property is available) equal
the lesser of the total additions made to this Trust during each calendar
year, divided equally among such beneficiaries, or an amount in cash or
other property (including the cash value of life insurance policies, if no
other cash or property is available) equal to the maximum amount which
qualifies for the Federal Gift Tax exclusion allowed by Section 2503(b) of
the Code (currently $13,000 per donor, but such amount shall be adjusted
to provide the maximum amount excludable) presuming that a donor's spouse,
if any, has consented to treat any such eligible gifts as being made
one-half by such donor and one-half by such donor's spouse. The holder(s)
of such power are hereinafter referred to as "Donee". Except as otherwise
provided herein, said power of withdrawal shall not be cumulative from
year to year, must be exercised separately for each calendar year in which
any such addition or additions are made, and shall be exercisable only by
written notice to Trustee of the amount Donee wishes to withdraw, but no
purpose for said withdrawal need be shown.

4. Beneficiary.

The beneficiaries of this Trust shall be SARAH PALIN. In addition, the
class of potential beneficiaries shall include any "Covered Individual.
For purposes hereof, a "Covered Individual shall be any other person
determined by the Trustee, in the Trustee's sole and absolute discretion,
to (i) hold a "covered staff' position within SARAH PALIN's administration
and/or an employee in the office of the Governor of the State of Alaska;
and (ii) hold a covered relationship with SARAH PALIN, including without
limitation, a family member, such as a parent, spouse, child, grandchild,
sibling and other close family relationship. Notwithstanding anything
contained herein to the contrary, in no event shall anyone other than the
Trustee exercise control over the Trust property and, in no event shall
any beneficiary receive tangible or intangible benefit from the Trust
other than such benefit that is incident to or may have arisen out of the
defraying, payment, or satisfaction of expenses as provided herein."

So: Sarah's whole family and other people can be granted to right to
withdraw money - and "no purpose for the withdrawal need to be shown". How
useful! A grifters dream. Regina published a detailed article about this
topic on Palingates in July 2009 and about possible criminal consequences,
which is worth to be revisited. Back then, Regina came to the conclusion:

"The website soliciting donations states that the money raised will be
used only to pay certain legal expenses. The agreement says no such thing.
The website states the money cannot be used for personal purposes. The
agreement contains a clause that says otherwise."