WASHINGTON — The already reeling IRS got whacked again yesterday when a scathing report found it spent $17,000 to hire an artist to paint pictures of Michael Jordan and Bono and doled out another $50,000 to produce videos that included a Star Trek parody.
The questionable spending was part of a California conference to inspire agents.
The $4.1 million confab also had managers staying in presidential suites that normally cost $1,500 to $3,500 a night, a perk that prevented the agency from negotiating lower rates at hotels.
In total, the IRS spent $49 million on 225 conferences between 2010 and 2012, according to the agency’s inspector general.
The agency spent $135,350 for 15 speakers at the Anaheim, Calif., conference.
Wahl painted Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan, Abraham Lincoln, Bono and the Statue of Liberty to teach employees about “unlearning the rules, freeing the thought process and breaking the boundaries,” the report said.