{"id":151791,"date":"2024-01-12T11:11:57","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T16:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=151791"},"modified":"2024-01-11T11:25:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T16:25:45","slug":"theft-by-former-vfw-post-commander-results-in-post-needing-to-merge-with-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=151791","title":{"rendered":"Theft by former VFW post commander results in post needing to merge with another"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Bruce Colley, 65, was a former commander of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post. He used money from the organization to make payments on his mortgage. This was not the only personal expense that he spent organization funds on. Colley was subsequently charged with wire fraud. He is looking at 20 years in federal prison and up to $250,000 in fines. As for the post, they were unable to recover these funds. They had to sell their building and merge with another post.<\/p>\n

From Stars and Stripes:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A former commander of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Oklahoma pleaded guilty Monday to using casino ATMs to pull more than $40,000 in cash from the veteran organization\u2019s bank accounts and spend it on his mortgage and other personal expenses, according to federal authorities.<\/p>\n

Michael Bruce Colley, 65, of Marlow, Okla., was charged in September with wire fraud, according to the Justice Department. As the commander of VFW Post 1192 in Duncan, Colley controlled the finances and made more than 30 unauthorized withdrawals between January 2019 and June 2021.<\/p>\n

He faces up to 20 years in federal prison, as well as a fine of up to $250,000. A date to sentence Colley has not been posted online.<\/p>\n

The post was not able to recoup those funds and had to sell its building, said Jason Burns, the current commander of VFW Post 1192.<\/p>\n

The Duncan post merged with VFW Post 4888 in nearby Marlow but kept the former Duncan post\u2019s number because it was the older of the two, Burns said. Duncan is located about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City and has a population of roughly 22,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really haven\u2019t moved forward yet,\u201d Burns said. \u201cWe are fighting to stay alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post previously boasted a membership of more than 300 but it has dropped to about 180, he said. Only a handful of those left are active because some veterans have lost trust in the organization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stars and Stripes has additional information here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Bruce Colley, 65, was a former commander of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post. He … Theft by former VFW post commander results in post needing to merge with another<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,13,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-society","category-veterans-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}