Category: Phony Vet Charities

Mary sends us a link to Courthouse News Service which reports that the Indiana attorney general is going after three veteran charities;

Indiana sued Sandbox Veterans of America, Catholic Veterans of Indiana, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Inc., in Allen County Court.
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Inc. is a “sham group” that is not affiliated with the “well-known and respected” Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the attorney general says.
The state also sued the four people who incorporated the groups: Adam Matthew Silvani (Sandbox), Olivia Jean Locke aka Olivia Jean Silvani (Catholic Veterans), Roger Anthony Locke (Catholic Veterans), and Donald Shoppe (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans), all of Fort Wayne.
The defendants have solicited charitable contributions since June 2011, but “the contributions were not given to veterans as represented,” the state says in its Sept. 19 complaint.

Apparently, the sham IAVA, Inc. even used Paul Rieckhoff’s name in it’s solicitation materials. I don’t like IAVA or Rieckhoff, but I hate thieves even more. Their “Crowdrise” fund raising site even linked to the real IAVA’s site.

Mary sends us a link to a story in the UK’s Daily Mail about 51-year-old Christopher Copeland who set up collection stations for “Help For Heroes” veteran charity outside of supermarkets from 2010 to 2011 and racked in over a-half-million bucks in donations that went straight into his pockets;

The teams would use Copeland’s fleet of ex-military vehicles, in Help for Heroes livery, and encourage shoppers to put money into charity buckets.

They then handed the cash over to ‘greedy’ Copeland, of mid Devon, who transferred it into his personal bank accounts.

Exeter Crown Court heard the scam took place between February 1, 2010, and September 17, 2011, when Copeland was arrested.

He admitted one charge of fraud by false representation and a charge of concealing criminal property, relating to the stolen donations.

Judge Philip Wassall adjourned the case for pre-sentence reports but warned Copeland he faced a ‘lengthy’ custodial sentence.

One of his minions became suspicious and blew him into the police;

Speaking outside court, a tearful Copeland apologised for his behaviour and said he would use his ‘life’s work’ to pay the money back.

‘I tried to do something that was really good and I messed up,’ he said. ‘I am very sorry. I would really, really like to make amends.

He’s “very sorry” that he got caught. The Help For Heroes charity for veterans is a legitimate organization, Copeland used their good name for his own purposes and greed.

Son and mother Brian and Andrea Michaud of Double Up Promotions Inc. in Milwaukee have been accused of selling coupon books in the area to local business. The proceeds of those sales were supposed to “benefit Wisconsin disabled veteran and veteran outreach programs”, but instead, were used to pay off gambling debts and child support. According to the Journal-Sentinel;

But, according to the complaint, the defendants didn’t donate proceeds from the books’ sales to any kind of charity.

In selling the books, Brian Michaud also said purchasers qualified for a chance to win one of three trips to Mexico that had been donated by Funjet Vacations.

But when Funjet learned the winners had not been randomly selected but were in fact all friends of Brian Michaud, it rescinded the donations and no one took the trips.

Though only about 10,000 of 40,000 coupon books were sold in 2011, Brian Michaud sought participants for a 2012 edition by describing the 2011 book as “a huge success.”

From WQOW;

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Tuesday the complaint against Brian and Andrea Michaud (MEE’-shohd) of Double Up Inc. seeks restitution for consumers who purchased coupon books. It also seeks forfeitures.

What a nice family.

Someone on Facebook sent us a link to this story about Harvey Malbaurn who was dressed in “military style fatigues” and collecting money for “Focus on Veterans” charity outside a Dunkin Donuts in Massachusetts when an observant police officer saw him, made a donation, and struck up a conversation with the 67-year-old.

Malbaurn said the money went to a house in Connecticut for homeless veterans and not Massachusetts vets.

Malbaurn claimed to be in the military, but could not provide any information about what branch he was in.

Police made a call to the Attorney General’s office and found that the Focus on Veterans group was not allowed to solicit money in Massachusetts.

Malbaurn, who had collected over $500 until his conversation with the officer, was arrested and charged with Larceny by False Pretenses.

So I don’t know anything about the charity, but I’d be suspicious of anyone collecting for them in public.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that a Florida-based veterans service organization, Veterans Support Organization has been charged by the Texas Attorney General with stealing from well-meaning citizens, telling them that their donations would go to local needy veterans. It was those guys standing outside supermarkets.

According to the lawsuit, the group raised $2.5 million in the state between 2010 and 2012.

The attorney general’s office is also seeking tens of thousands of dollars in fines against VSO president Richard Van Houten and three associates.

In February, the American-Statesman published an investigation into the group, revealing that it gave less than 1 percent of the $7.1 million it raised from the public in 2011 in grants to needy veterans. Members of the Austin and Dallas chapters quit as a group in December after managers said they became aware of how much money the group was sending out of state.

Yeah, well, a VSO called VSO would have twigged me to scam, but, I’m not in Texas.

We’ve been following this story since a year ago last May when it was discovered that the man known as Bobby Thompson was using the charity he founded as his personal checking account. Well, it seems that chapter is over and Thompson enters the final chapter of his life with a 28-year sentence and a 6-million-dollar fine, according to a link sent to us by Chip from Fox News;

The judge rejected a request for a new trial. The defense had said comments by jurors after the verdict that they were disappointed he hadn’t testified showed they were biased against him.

The defendant, whose appearance in court Monday was neat in contrast to the final days of his trial, slumped in his chair as the sentence was read. He complained to the judge about alleged abusive treatment by jailers while locked up during the trial.

There was no immediate response from the sheriff’s department. Jailers said earlier that the defendant had acted erratically and had bloodied his forehead smashing it against a holding cell wall.

The judge said the crimes had harmed veterans who were the intended beneficiaries of the donations and also had hurt other charities as donors became skeptical of giving.

“Everyone’s afraid to give,” Gall said.

The prosecutor had asked for 41 years, but given that Thompson is 57 years old, 28 years of prison food and daily ass-rapes ought to do it. His defense attorney asked for a new trial prior to the sentencing on the grounds that his client was a nut. Yeah, he was so nuts that he evaded police for months and no one is really sure what his real name is to this day. Sounds to me like he knew he was doing something wrong.

Currahee John went to his local WalMart in Alpharetta, GA and ran into Buck Melchi today.

This guy was set up outside our local WalMart in Alpharetta, GA, collecting money for the “Veterans Associate Group,” and wearing what looked like a fake VA ID card on top of an absolute travesty of a “uniform.” He was right friendly when I asked if I could take a picture of him (I thought the saluting was a nice touch!), but somewhat less so when I asked what the “Veterans Associate Group” did. He mumbled something about providing “social services for wounded veterans” and showed me what also appeared to be a fake State of Georgia Certificate of Incorporation (which I didn’t manage to get a shot of), before whipping out his cell phone to report me to his “boss” for asking questions.

Yeah, I tried the website address on the sign and it gives me a 404 “not found” error. John got a shot of Buck’s ID card and it just doesn’t look right to me, and I’m pretty sure that the VA doesn’t send people out to collect money with their government IDs. Maybe some of you VA employees can chime in about the ID’s appearance.

The Veterans Associates Group has an address, but the phone number goes to vmail;

Veterans Associates Group
620 Hillcrest NW Rd
Lilburn, GA 30047
(678) 694-1132

The address is a parking lot;

John also said that Buck told him he was in the Navy (notice the ball cap logo), yet he’s wearing an Army uniform, with the flag backwards. Someone should let the local cops know about him, because I don’t get the sense that he’s legit, maybe a call to the Walmart manager wouldn’t be totally out of line either. Good work, John.