Shady nonprofit founder Bobby Thompson gave $10K for a photo of Bachmann-Palin in Minneapolis April 7, was also major Norm Coleman donor.
By Karl Bremer
A tax-exempt Navy veterans group founded by one of Michele Bachmann’s top campaign contributors may be under investigation by the IRS at the request of U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA). The group is under investigation in at least six states and has been banned from operating in at least three.
Webb has asked the IRS to investigate the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, a national charitable veterans organization founded by Bobby Thompson of Tampa, FL, after reading “alarming reports” that the charity’s directors cannot be located and its multimillion-dollar expenditures cannot be accounted for.The U.S. Navy Veterans Association was founded by Thompson, who donated $10,000 to Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign at her Minneapolis event with former halftime governor Sarah Palin April 7. Thompson was only one of six individuals who ponied up the 10 large to have his picture taken with the Tea Party darlings.
Thompson’s organization was the subject of a major investigation by the St. Petersburg (FL) Times last spring.
According to the Times:
“The group bills itself as “nationally recognized U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Service Organization,” with 41 state chapters, more than 66,000 members and $22.4 million a year in income that it says it uses for gifts to military personnel, veterans and their families.
But the Times found little evidence of the nationwide charity. Its officers, directors and auditors were nowhere to be found, its offices a network of rented mailboxes, its records kept secret.
Of 85 officers listed on tax papers, the Times could find just one, founder Bobby Thompson, who lived in a $600-a-month Ybor City, FL, duplex. He said he is a retired Navy lieutenant commander and “trust fund baby” who poured more than $180,000 of his own money into political campaigns.”
Indeed, Thompson has spread a considerable amount of his largesse around to other Minnesota Republicans. According to figures compiled by the Times, besides his $10,000 donation to Bachmann, Thompson also donated:
• $21,500 to Norm Coleman’s Senate re-election campaign between 2006 and 2008The Times investigation sparked a series of individual state investigations where the group has chapters. According to the Times’ chronology:
• $5,000 to the Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee in 2008
• $10,400 to the Republican Party of Minnesota from 2008-2010--most recently on May 6, 2010.
On March 21, the St. Petersburg Times published stories that examined the legitimacy of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association and questioned why a search for the 85 officers on Navy Veterans federal tax returns turned up only one: Bobby Thompson. At least six states have since taken action.
April 1: New Mexico orders the Navy Veterans to cease and desist operations there, after determining officers' names and addresses listed on tax returns are "fictional." Its attorney general continues to investigate.
April 7: Florida consumer service officials confirm they have opened an investigation. Later, Attorney General Bill McCollum opens a separate investigation.
Mid April: Missouri opens an investigation.
May 17: Hawaii determines Navy Veterans is not legally registered and orders the group to stop fundraising there.
May 18: Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat and former secretary of the Navy, asks the Department of Veterans Affairs to review how it screens veterans service organizations listed on the VA website. The VA removes the group from its website listing of veterans service organizations and begins its own review.
May 27: The Roanoke Times reports that Virginia's consumer affairs agency is investigating the Navy Veterans.
May 28: Sen. Webb asks the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the charity founded by Bachmann’s big contributor. Also Friday, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray orders the Navy Veterans to stop fundraising there after determining that the group's registration documents “contained false and misleading information.”
June 16: Florida regulators move to shut down the Navy veterans group in that state.
In Virginia, lawmakers have called on the governor to initiate a State Police investigation of the Navy Veterans group.
MORE MINNESOTA CONNECTIONS
A “Bob Thompson” is listed as the CFO of the Minnesota chapter of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. John Clinton is listed as their commander and Reint Reinders lieutenant commander. Their office is listed at 1043 Grand Ave., No. 555, St. Paul MN 55105
The Times investigation found a number of unsubstantiated claims on the organization’s website, including plagiarizing letters sent by troops to students at a Minnesota grade school:
A year ago, the children at the Academy of Saints Peter and Paul in Minnesota wrote letters to American troops overseas, including a U.S. sailor stationed in Iraq named Vivian N. Kamara.
After receiving the children's letters, Kamara posted her thanks to them in a message on anysoldier.com, a website that connects deployed U.S. troops with Americans who want to send mail or care packages.
“We are proud to report that we have received our first set of letters from the Academy of Saints Peter and Paul,” Kamara wrote.
Without permission, Kamara's letter was copied and put on the website of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, with a key alteration:
“Academy of Saints Peter and Paul” was erased, replaced by “the Middlesex County Girl Scout troop.”
Word that the credit deserved by the Catholic school students was claimed by someone else distressed Heidi Dondelinger, an administrator at the academy. The letters were a project during Catholic Schools week for the suburban Minneapolis academy, which has about 100 students, preschool through eighth grade.
“That is such a bizarre thing to do,” Dondelinger said. "What's so frustrating is that it was so important to our kids to do these letters for the soldiers.
“That some other group is getting the credit is so upsetting. And all to put money in someone's pocket.”
As for the Girl Scout troop that got the credit on the Navy Veterans website — the group already featured a color photo of 11 girls from Troop 04-6, from Middlesex County, N.J., along with letters they were said to have written to thank the Navy Veterans for sending care packages to U.S. troops.
“Our country is free because of what the Navy Vets have done for it. God bless you,” said the letter from “Albina Z.” of Troop 04-6.
Except there is no Troop 04-6 in Middlesex County …
The Times continues:
The Kamara letter is the latest example of manipulated data or unverifiable claims made by the Navy Veterans, a nonprofit that continues to raise money around the country. Founded in Tampa, the IRS granted the group tax-exempt status in 2002 …
… the Times reported that the Navy Veterans lifted letters troops had written to anysoldier.com, copied them to its own website and altered some of them to make them appear that soldiers were thanking the Navy Veterans.
The Times interviewed three U.S. sailors whose letters were copied, including Kamara. All three said they never received packages from the Navy Veterans or wrote them thank-yous.
“I've never heard of them,” Kamara said.
The Navy Veterans told the IRS that in the last two years, it spent a total of more than $16 million on care packages.
The full St. Petersburg Times series on the U.S. Navy Veterans Association can be found here.
Soon after the Times investigation began, Bobby Thompson cleared out of his duplex and left no forwarding address. However, it appears he may have last been seen at the Hilton Hotel in Minneapolis on April 7. Perhaps investigators should ask Michele Bachmann if she’s seen her pal Bobby lately. She should at least be able to provide them with a current photo.
Karl Bremer is a freelance writer in Stillwater, MN.
Photo of Bobby Thompson from VA Watchdog dot Org
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