In 2009, Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe, two private citizen journalists, went into several ACORN (Association of Community organisations for Reform Now) offices across the U.S.A. and made hidden video recordings. They posed as a prostitute and pimp attempting to purchase a house with ACORN's help, for the purpose of prostitution using very young girls illegally brought into the country from South America. ACORN representatives were filmed offering advice on how to subvert the law to gain home loans, offered to assist with tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution.

ACORN was already under an ongoing investigation for voter fraud. Several employees were convicted of voter registration fraud in 2007. In 2008 they were under investigation for voter fraud in 14 states. In addition, Citizens Consulting Inc., the umbrella group controlling Acorn, was paid $832,000 by the Obama campaign for get-out-the-vote efforts in key primary states. President Obama got his start as a community organiser at ACORN in 1992, and in 1995 he defended ACORN in a key case upholding the Motor Voter Act, the very law that mandated postcard registration that flooded election offices with bogus registrations.