Al Sharpton Sells Rights to His Life Story. No,Really.

NYP - The Rev. Al Sharpton has found an eager buyer for the rights to his life story — his own charity.

The National Action Network agreed to pay the activist preacher $531,000 according to the non-profit’s latest tax filing, which was obtained by The Post. NAN can apparently turn around and sell those rights to Hollywood or other takers at a big profit, but neither the reverend nor the charity would identify what producers are waiting for such Sharpton content.

The document does not indicate when Sharpton, who is president of NAN, gets the cash, which is above and beyond the $244,661 he already pulled down in compensation from the group in 2017. Sharpton also wouldn’t say when the cash would come in.

Sharpton said he had contracts for two movies, with a third contract in the works. One of these movies is already in production, he claimed. He would not provide details of any of the projects. He said a play was being shopped around and there were other assets that would generate revenue for NAN, including a recording where James Brown is singing and he’s talking, and video footage of him with Michael Jackson.

Buy 2 CD's for $20 & Get a 3rd for Only $10
Exclusively at the NAN Store

Nonprofit experts said the transaction could be troubling because NAN — whose mission includes criminal justice reform and police accountability — was doing business with its president. If NAN paid too much it could run afoul of IRS rules regarding excess benefits given to a nonprofit’s key officials, which might put its tax-exempt status in jeopardy, Marcus Owens, a former IRS official and a partner with the Loeb & Loeb law firm in Washington, DC.

Daniel Borochoff, the head of Charity Watch, said the transaction would have been “a lot cleaner” if Sharpton sold the rights himself to a production company and then donated any profit in excess of $531,000 to NAN.

Sharpton, who hosts the “PoliticsNations” show on MSNBC, managed to pay off a chunk of his tax debt to the state and feds in the last year. He paid $172,112 to the state, but still owes $736,375 in personal income tax and taxes for three of his companies to Albany. City records show a $1.3 million tax lien to the IRS was satisfied in February, but records show he still has $2.5 million in outstanding federal liens against him and one of his companies.