This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Phony Vet Charities

  • John Thomas Burch charged

    John Thomas Burch charged


    The New York Daily News reports that John Thomas Burch, the former head of the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation who we busted with our partners about a year ago, has been charged with fraud and embezzling from the charity of about $150,000 and spending that money on personal entertainment in Maryland.

    John Thomas Burch, a veteran who worked as an attorney for the Department of Veteran Affairs, is accused of skimming money from the charity between 2012 and 2016, according to a recently filed lawsuit.

    He was able to easily access the funds as he had “unilateral control over the distribution of smaller grants,” typically between $100 and $300, for the foundation’s “Emergency Assistance Program.”

    According to its tax filing, the Vietnam Veterans Foundation pulled in nearly $30 million in donations between 2010 and 2014 — but less than 2% was actually put toward veterans in need, CNN reported.

    Yeah, I’m thinking that when it’s all said and done, they’re going to find that the Rolls-driving lawyer skimmed a lot more than that from his charity. The corporation claimed that they spent most of their donations on telemarketers – I think they laundered their donations through the telemarketers.

    Thanks to Don for the link.

  • Joyell Riley pleads guilty again

    Joyell Riley pleads guilty again

    Last year we talked about Joyell Riley when she was arrested for claiming to be a “highly decorated” Marine Corps veteran and a cancer victim to scam folks on a GoFundMe tincup. The money went into her pocket instead. She was sentenced in December to three years on parole and ordered to make restitution to her victims. Well, that’s not the end of it. Last week she pleaded guilty again, this time for theft, forgery and two counts of tampering with records.

    [Chief criminal assistant prosecutor Brandon] Pigg said the remaining counts of tampering with records involve altered military records indicating she had been discharged from the military when in fact she had never served in the military.

    She made the claim in an application she filled out with the Richland County Land Bank for a property at 210 Park Avenue East to house her mission’s food pantry. That property is being forfeited to the state of Ohio, as part of the her plea deal.

    Robinson said the theft and forgery charges, both felonies of the fourth degree, each carrying a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison and a maximum $5,000 fine.

    Tampering with records, a third-degree felony, each carries a maximum of 36 months in prison and $10,000 fine on each, Robinson said.

    She might not avoid prison this time.

  • J Thomas Burch to retire from VA

    J Thomas Burch to retire from VA

    J THOMAS BURCH - PHOTO - 4a

    Back in the Spring, we wrote about J Thomas Burch and his phony Special Forces career after CNN exposed his charity, the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation as the worst performing veterans’ charity. It took in $29 million in donations paying out only a few thousand to actual veterans’ causes, spending most of it on professional fund raising.

    Well, CNN reports that the VAOIG started looking into Burch (he’s also a lawyer with the VA);

    [New York Attorney General Eric] Schneiderman has accused Burch of using donated funds to spend lavishly on travel, a yearly salary and other personal benefits, including a severance package the charity awarded him when he stepped down after being exposed by CNN.

    Burch’s spending also included payments to women, as well as hotel and nightclubs.

    The VA was unaware of Burch’s involvement with the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation until a CNN investigation exposed the VA employee in May. The Department of Veteran Affairs Inspector General launched its own investigation, and last week the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it “immediately initiated the process for Mr. Burch’s removal from federal service.”

    Yeah, they’re removing him by forcing him to retire, so he’ll still get thousands of dollars in pension money, big punishment. Big Whoop!

    Thanks to David for the link.

  • Vet charity conman sentenced in UK

    Vet charity conman sentenced in UK

    Marvin Trussell

    Someone sends us a link to the story of Marvin Trussell in the United Kingdom who pocketed about $63,000 (£50,000) that him and his charity workers took in for donations to his “Army of Heroes” bogus charity by selling little camouflaged wristbands.

    Marvin Trussell, 42, set up ‘Army of Heroes’, claiming to collect money for soldiers returning from battle with injuries and PTSD.

    But jailing him at Preston Crown Court , Judge James Adkin described the scam as a “mean, exploitative offence” adding: “You took advantage of the good nature of people who wanted to help servicemen.”

    Not one penny of the money raised went towards helping injured soldiers.

    On the first day of his trial, Trussell was spotted begging for donations near the courtroom – violating his bail. Anyway, he was sentenced to three years in jail for his little scam.

  • National Vietnam Veterans Foundation closes doors

    National Vietnam Veterans Foundation closes doors

    J THOMAS BURCH - PHOTO - 4

    The worst Veteran charity, the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation, run by valor thieves J. Thomas Burch and Hans Rudolph Gresham, has shut down, according to CNN;

    “Tom Burch has resigned from the Foundation and NVVF is shutting down completely, ” Kaufman wrote in an email to CNN. “All fundraising has ceased and the only thing being done is the distribution of blankets, personal care kits and related items in the warehouse.”

    In CNN’s original report, the watchdog group Charity Navigator gave the Foundation zero out of four stars. According to its public tax returns, called 990s, the Foundation took in $29 million over a four-year period but nearly all of it went to telemarketers and fundraisers. In one year, the charity also paid a parking garage bill of nearly $8,000.

    Burch and Gresham both pretended to be Special Forces officers, you know, even though all they had to be was veterans of the Vietnam era – they were both legitimately Vietnam era veterans. Burch was a JAG officer for a special forces unit in Vietnam and Gresham was a company typist in West Germany.

    Even though he left NVVF, Burch is still a lawyer at the VA and still driving his Rolls Royce.

    Thanks to Chip for the link.

  • MOPH phone hoax

    The Military Order of the Purple Heart, a federally-chartered organization warns that some less-than scrupulous folks are making phone calls claiming to be from that organization and soliciting donations for presidential campaigns, according to Business Wire.

    The public should be informed that these calls are a HOAX. The MOPH remains an apolitical organization and, as such, “shall not contribute to or otherwise support or assist any political party or candidate for public office.” If you should receive such a call, you are encouraged to report it as a SCAM to the local authorities.

    It’s a jungle out there.

  • J. Thomas Burch & the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation

    J. Thomas Burch & the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation

    J. Thomas Burch

    Bobo and Liberal Civvie send us a link to the story about this National Vietnam Veterans Foundation, the CEO of which is J. Thomas Burch, a Veterans’ Affairs attorney -deputy director in the VA’s Office of General Counsel. According to CNN, during 2010 through 2014, they took in $29 million in donations. Pretty impressive, huh? Well, until you realize that only 2% of their donations went to Vietnam veterans. Nearly $8 million went to pay professional telemarketers. They earned a “Zero Star” rating from Charity Navigator – quite an accomplishment, huh?

    When contacted by CNN, Burch asked that we not contact him at his job at the Department of Veterans Affairs, but he refused to answer phone calls placed to his home. CNN tried to confront Burch as he drove home from work in a black Rolls Royce, but upon seeing a CNN camera crew, Burch gunned the Rolls Royce down his suburban Washington, D.C. street and disappeared.

    Yeah, that’s right, he drives a Rolls Royce.

    According to the charity’s tax filings, though, it accounted for about $122,000 in cash donations to veterans, out of more than $8.5 million raised in donations in 2014. That is less than 2% of the charities cash donations being used to support veterans and their families.

    Nice work if you can get it, I guess.

  • Southern Maryland Veterans Association shuttered by State

    Brown Neck Gaiter sends us the news that another veteran-related charity has been shut down, this time by the Maryland Attorney General’s office;

    In response to multiple complaints, an investigation by the Secretary of State’s Charities and Legal Services Division, aided by the Office of the Attorney General, showed that the organization was allegedly not assisting the housing needs of veterans as claimed in marketing materials. The charity was also not registered with the Secretary of State.

    […]

    Solicitors for Southern Maryland Veterans Association had been a visible presence at retail and grocery stores in Calvert County and elsewhere in Southern Maryland. Fund-raisers for the charity would distribute documents that claimed to show that the organization was registered with the state, when in fact it was not.

    Because of their poor accounting practices, the government isn’t sure how much money they’ve collected and misspent in the names of veterans. So, while you’re out and about in Maryland, if you see someone collecting money for them, contact Michael Schlein, Investigator, Charities and Legal Services Division at 410-260-3879

    From the Washington Post;

    Brashear said he wanted to help veterans when he got out of prison in 2012 after serving 22 years for killing his then-girlfriend. His first charity venture in Western Maryland ran into financial problems, and an assistant accused him of misusing funds, Brashear said.

    Now he plans to operate shelters for veterans in Texas and Indiana, and he said he’ll appeal the cease-and-desist order to clear his name.

    Yeah, I don’t know why anyone thought that a convicted murderer wouldn’t do right by veterans.