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

Category: Phony Vet Charities

  • “Bobby Thompson” convicted

    Andy sends us a link to an Associated Press article in regards to the fraudster known as “Bobby Thompson” but widely believed to be John Donald Cody, a former intelligence agent. We’ve been writing about him since May 2010 when his fake veterans’ organization was unmasked. But a jury convicted him today in Ohio;

    He faces up to 67 years in prison at his sentencing, which was scheduled for Dec. 16.

    The defendant rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and rocked on his feet as the verdicts were read. Deputies cuffed his wrists after the first guilty verdict was announced. Unlike the last two days of his trial, the defendant showed up with his shirt buttoned and his hair combed.

    He was charged with looting the United States Navy Veterans Association, a charity he ran in Tampa, Fla. As his five-week trial wound down, he had appeared disheveled in court, so much so that the judge suggested a break Tuesday to allow him to get a clean shirt and comb his hair.

    He was identified with fingerprints, since he had scores of IDs in his suitcase when he was arrested along with nearly a million dollars in cash.

    ADDED: The folks at ABC News send a more complete report than I’ve linked to above, if the subject interests you.

  • Leonard McQuown; Veterans’ Miracle Network liar

    Leonard Dale McQuown

    A few years back, Virginia warned it’s citizens about phony veterans’ charities. Especially, the Veterans’ Miracle Network, also known as Project Foot and Operation Walk America

    They all lead back to a single fellow, Leonard “Mac” McQuown who claims that he was a Marine sergeant and now he wants to help homeless veterans. Well, Scotty checked him out and he was Marine, but but not a sergeant and he was a deserter for more than 200 days. From Fredricksburg.com;

    According to the military personnel file for McQuown, at the end of his second four-year active service period he had four months of unauthorized absence, about two months of confinement and one day “in hands of civil authorities.”

    His record also lists desertion. He was discharged in February 1988 after being demoted from sergeant to private first class.

    Quantico spokeswoman Haney could not go into further detail about that period of time because it is part of private records.

    McQuown said the unauthorized absences and ultimate desertion resulted from problems caused by a fiancée at the time, who he says conned him and ruined his credit.

    “I believe your past is your past,” said McQuown. “Everyone makes mistakes.”

    Yeah, everyone makes mistakes, but they don’t form a charity and claim to be something they were not. Here’s his FOIA;

    Leonard Dale McQuown FOIA

    According to the state of Virginia, very little, if any money goes to veterans. And the dude is still out there scamming well-meaning people out of their money to line his pockets.

  • Buckingham pleads guilty to bilking public for vets’ raffle

    We first wrote about Matthew Buckingham in February when he was arrested for a Craigslist scam in Missouri. MCPO Ret. In TN sends us a link today which reports that the little worm pleaded guilty to yet another scam in court yesterday.

    A number of people responded to Buckingham’s ads [on Craigslist] and he arranged to meet these people at restaurants and bars in the St. Louis area. After introducing himself as “Tyler Matthews,” Buckingham showed the people a binder with various documents claiming he was affiliated with the military and other paperwork that appeared to legitimize his charitable activities.

    While talking with these people, Buckingham said he served in Afghanistan and Iraq, that he was a Marine and had been injured in the war, and that he later worked as a military officer and sniper. After returning home, Buckingham said he worked in the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Coast Guard, and that he presently worked in an “undercover” capacity in north St. Louis infiltrating gangs and combating crime.

    Matthew Buckingham pleaded guilty to impersonating a federal agent. He faces up to three years in prison and/or fines totaling $250,000 when he’s sentenced November 25.

    I hope Missouri sees that this assmonkey is endangering legitimate charities and locks the little weasel up soon, because apparently he works harder at scamming people than he would at a real job.

  • Allied Veterans of the World leader pleads no contest to racketeering

    MCPO Ret. in TN sends us a link to an article from the Orlando Sentinel about an organization that I’d never heard about before now. Johnny Duncan, the national leader of the Allied Veterans of the World, pleaded no contest to charges of money laundering and operating an illegal lottery with money that meant for veterans;

    Duncan, 66, was arrested in March along with more than 50 other co-defendants, most on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering and possessing slot machines. They’re accused of turning Internet cafes into illegal casinos by transforming personal computers into virtual slot machines.

    […]

    Prosecutors’ No. 1 target, Jacksonville lawyer Kelly Mathis, the group’s general counsel, was not due in court Wednesday. He is set for trial next month.

    I tried to look up what the organization’s mission is, but every website is an attack site, so much for that. Their Facebook page says;

    Allied Veterans of the World, Inc. & Affiliates is a 501(c)-19 nonprofit veterans’ service organization and a member of the Veterans Administration. Headquartered in St. Augustine, Florida, the organization has 16 affiliates across the state. Its mission is to help fellow veterans, first responder organizations and other charitable organizations in need by contributing time, money and support services. Since Dec. 2007, Allied Veterans has donated more than $5.4 million to veterans, community and first responder organizations in the Jacksonville area.

    But the Sentinel tells the story differently;

    At the time of the arrests, authorities accused Allied of grossing $300 million but providing just two percent of that as charity to veterans.

    Five and a half million bucks sounds good until you hear it’s only 2% of their income.

  • Joseph Gable Wood; pleads guilty to phony charity scam

    Joseph Gable Wood pleaded guilty to fraud in a scam that was supposedly to raise money for veterans in Panama City Florida. In a link sent to us by Chip, the News Herald reports that Wood got five years for his trouble.

    He began collecting money in February 2012 for an event called “Tour De Beach,” which he promoted as a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project. State prosecutors accounted for $13,000 Wood received, but believe the total amount was closer to $20,000. On the “Tour De Beach” Facebook page, which is still active, Wood claimed to have collected about $37,000 from the event.

    When sponsors tried asking Wood how much money was raised, they received no response. Sponsors then contacted the Wounded Warrior Project, and the group reported Wood made no donations. Wood told police in October that he’d been living off the donations, and had spent most of the money on social events and alcohol. He also admitted “Tour De Beach” was a scam from the beginning.

    Nice. I hope Bubba gets back our money in anal rapes.

  • Vet charities that are only charitable to themselves

    Preston sends us a link to Military.com which reports from the Tampa Bay Times that there are charities out there which are more interested in paying themselves than helping veterans. For example;

    National Veterans Service Fund, for example, which is No. 8 on the list, pulled in $70.2 million. The charity paid the solicitors $36.9 million, but spent just $5.5 million in cash aid to those in need, the paper reports

    Vietnow, a 20-year-old organization intended to help veterans and their families, raised about $18 million of which nearly $16 million went to the solicitors, about $2.2 million to the charity, and just over $527,000 in cash aid to individuals over that time, about $32,000 per year.

    TBT lists the 50 worst charities of all types.

    In 2009, while faced with lawsuits by two states and hit with more than $100,000 in penalties, founder Sydney Young shut down Our American Veterans only to set up a new charity, American’s Helping Veterans Corp., operating from the same address in Georgia.

  • Earl Littman; phony SEAL & phony charity

    Don Shipley and Mary sent us a link to the Baltimore City Paper story about Earl Littman who claims to be a “World War II SEAL” and he’s trying to raise money for veterans with a 501(c)3 called “Back Our Vets“. The problem is that there doesn’t seem to be much about Back Our Vets on the internet. ANd, oh, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, Littman wasn’t a SEAL, WWII-type or otherwise.

    I asked Littman to send information about his non-profit, starting with its incorporation papers. He emailed me a week later saying the state of Texas had not yet sent those papers to him. (He also asked which of three linked videos looked and sounded best. In them, he appears with the Seals-only Special Warfare insignia (AKA “The Trident”) signifying his elite status. I picked the one in which he says:

    “I was in Team 1 of the original Navy Seals…as a navy medic I experienced people falling down with wounds and some falling down forever.”

    I asked Littman for his military discharge records, and also got no reply. I emailed him notice that VeriSeal had found no record of his alleged Seal service either. I expect no reply to that either.

    Of course, his file isn’t available because the operations he participated in back in 1944 are still classified. The existence of the Enigma cipher machine was declassified in 1975, but Littman’s missions are still secret.

    UPDATE: Mr. Littman did email back late last night:

    The only possible way that you or anyone else can check my service record is to see if the Pentagon will release confidential and secret information on the 100 members of the “secret combat naked warriors” during the period of 1942 through the end of 1945. Upon discharge we were sworn to never tell for the rest of our lives; “what, when, where , why or how” we performed our duties. It was suggested we not try to stay in touch with one another as we might talk about our missions which was taboo.

    Yeah, good luck with that, Earl.

    TSO Adds:

  • Charity fraud

    Preston sends a link from WHIOTV which reports on the fraud at the charity for troops “A Dollar to Care” which the head of the organization used as her personal piggy bank;

    The head of a local charitable organization claiming to help soldiers incarcerated for crimes allegedly committed during combat instead used donated funds at liquor stores, Redbox kiosks and for other personal purposes, the Ohio Attorney General said Friday.

    Riverside resident Cari Johnson, head of the charity A Dollar to Care, signed an agreement with the attorney general’s office to cease operations. She will also pay a $20,000 fine, half of which the attorney general will distribute to charity. Half will pay for the cost of the investigation.

    This particular charity has been shut down by the courts, but I’m sure that there are others out there, which is unfortunate because some of them do good work and this bust shouldn’t taint your giving. But it’s also why I don’t advertise for charities here – I don’t have the time to research all of these folks who rattle their tin cups in my inbox.