By Karl Bremer © Copyright 2010
The U.S. Navy Veterans Association (USNVA) Minnesota Chapter appears to have violated state reporting requirements for charitable organizations in at least three ways over the five years it operated here. From 2005-2009, the Chapter’s officers:
- Failed to ever provide the state with a legitimate physical Minnesota address as required on its initial filing and annual reports.
- Deliberately misrepresented two UPS drop box addresses as “street address” in a 2007 filing with the Attorney General’s Office.
- Claimed on its 2009 annual report, filed May 17, 2010, that it was under no actions or investigations in any state, when in fact, it was under a cease-and-desist order in New Mexico and under investigation in Virginia and possibly other states at the time.
The U.S. Navy Veterans Association is no nickel-and-dime operation. The St. Petersburg Times has estimated the USNVA nationally and through its state chapters has taken in over $99 million since its inception.
State and federal records show the USNVA Minnesota Chapter took in over $1.54 million from 2005-2009.
While the organization and its state chapters have been shut down or are under investigations in several states for their allegedly fraudulent activities, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office has refused to confirm or deny whether an investigation into the USNVA is underway here.
UPS’S BEST CUSTOMERS
Bobby Thompson, a major campaign contributor to Rep. Michele Bachmann, and the U.S. Navy Veterans Association (USNVA) are two of UPS’s best customers. Thompson is the now-missing founder and national commander of the organization and until 2009 was the CFO of the Minnesota Chapter.
Every address for its “offices” that Thompson and the Minnesota Chapter of the USNVA have provided on documents filed with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office from 2005 to 2009 has been a UPS drop box in either St. Paul, Tampa, FL, or Washington, DC. That, despite the fact that initial filing and annual report forms that charitable organizations must file with the Attorney General require that a “physical address” be provided.
Nate Brennaman, manager of the Charities and Civil Enforcement Division of the Minnesota Attorney Generals Office, says that with over 8,500 charitable organizations registering with the state every year, it’s impossible to verify each and every address for them.
It appears the Navy Vets Minnesota Chapter deliberately mislead state officials about the legitimacy of its addresses.
In 2007, the USNVA Minnesota Chapter falsely characterized its UPS drop box as a “street address.” In a letter to the Attorney General’s Charities Division July 25, 2007, Minnesota Chapter CEO John Clinton wrote:
“We are amending our recently filed Annual Report FYE 12/31/2006 to delete the Current Street Address listed thereon and to substitute our Current Street Address, which is: 1043 Grand Ave. Ste. 555, St. Paul, MN 55105.”
Its “Current Street Address” listed on its 2006 Annual Report was 1718 M. St. NW #275, Washington, DC 20036. That’s the UPS drop box of its national headquarters, an address used in other states’ filings.
The address given to the Attorney General’s Office in the Minnesota Chapter’s initial registration in February 2005 is HQSUSNVA, 7028 W. Waters #325, Tampa, FL 33634. That, too, is a UPS drop box.
The use of UPS drop boxes masquerading as physical offices for the USNVA in Minnesota and other states has been a common ruse of the USNVA and Thompson, a former Florida resident and major contributor to Minnesota Republican candidates and party units.
Another common practice of the group, according to one source, has been to use the address of some sort of multiunit housing complex that would be difficult to trace.
In the Minnesota Chapter’s initial registration in 2005—the only time it submitted anything but UPS drop boxes for addresses—it listed the following directors:
John Clinton, Commander
701 W. Superior St.
Duluth, MN 55802
Reint Reinders, Lt. Commander
902 11th Ave. NW
Rochester, MN 55901
Bobby Thompson, CFO
1626 E. 17th Ave.
Tampa, FL 33605
Of those addresses, Clinton’s is a low-income apartment building in Duluth, Reiners’ is a low-income apartment building in Rochester, and Thompson’s is an address that was listed for “Charles Thompson” in the national organization’s 2002 IRS application for tax-exempt status.
When the Minnesota Chapter filed its 2005 federal taxes, it listed the Tampa, FL, UPS drop box address for the Chapter’s address and all three directors.
In 2006, its address filed with the state and IRS had changed to the Washington, DC, UPS drop box.
Then, in July 2007, four months after the group got caught soliciting funds in Minnesota without the proper registration, Commander Clinton changed the address yet again, to the St. Paul UPS drop box on Grand Avenue.
Neither Clinton nor Reinders have ever been located nor their existence confirmed, despite extensive database searches. Thompson is the only one of 85 directors or officers associated with the USNVA who has ever been located. Thompson disappeared in 2009 once the St. Petersburg Times started asking questions about his organization.
WHERE’S BOBBY THOMPSON NOW?
Thompson’s name also disappeared from the Minnesota Chapter in 2009.
Clinton is listed on the 2009 Annual Report as the “Contact Person,” while Thompson had been listed as “Contact Person” on all previous Annual Reports filed with the state.
Its 2009 Annual Report filed with the state May 17 and its 2009 IRS return list John Markman as CFO instead of Thompson. Markman also is listed as the CFO of the National Association’s Executive Committee and Commander of the New York Chapter on the USNVA’s website.
Markman was served with a summons and complaint by certified mail on June 28 in the investigation underway in Ohio by Attorney General Richard Cordray. The address he was served at? The same Washington, DC, UPS drop box that he lists as his address on the Minnesota Chapter’s 2009 IRS return.
Bobby Thompson’s last known whereabouts was at an April 7 Minneapolis fundraiser for Michele Bachmann that featured former halftime Gov. Sarah Palin. Thompson donated $10,000 to Bachmann at the event, an amount that would have qualified him for a photo opportunity and private reception with the Tea Party Twins, and a table for 10 at the dinner.
The Minnesota Chapter of the USNVA dissolved suddenly May 4, 2010. John Markman’s signature appears to be on the resolution the group sent to the state, identified as “Acting Secretary of the Chapter. The resolution cites “potential legal liabilities” that could “cause the Chapter to be insolvent” as the reason for its dissolution.
MORE FALSE FILINGS?
On May 17, 2010, the Attorney General’s Office received the Minnesota Chapter’s 2009 Annual Report. However, depending on what date is considered the legal filing date—when the Annual Report was signed or when it was received by the State—the group may have filed false information.
The Minnesota Chapter’s 2009 Annual Report was signed by John Clinton and John Markman on February 4, 2010. In Section Three, Question 2 states:
“Attach an explanation if there has been any change in the organization’s tax status with the Internal Revenue Service, a significant change in the purposes of the organization, or if the organization’s right to solicit funds has been denied, suspended, revoked or enjoined by any state agency or court in any state, or if there are proceedings pending.”
The box for Question 2 is checked “None.”
While that may have been true on February 4, when the Annual Report was allegedly signed, it was certainly not true on May 17, when the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office received it.
By that time, the USNVA was under an April 1 http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article1085467.ece cease-and-desist order from the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, which also yanked the group’s registration there.
An investigation into the group had also been launched by Florida state officials by that time as well.
And in 2009, after Virginia officials determined the USNVA didn’t meet the state’s registration requirements, the group http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/248443 suspended its fundraising activities there.
Furthermore, even the Minnesota Chapter’s own May 4 resolution dissolving the organization acknowledged pending legal trouble two weeks before its Annual Report was filed stating it was under no current or pending state proceedings anywhere.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office could not be reached for comment on whether this sequence of events would constitute a violation of the state’s reporting requirements.
Meanwhile, the troubles for the USNVA are deepening. New Hampshire was just added this week to the growing list of states that has opened an investigation into the organization. NH Attorney General Michael Delaney has urged potential donors to the group there to “use caution.”
Karl Bremer is a freelance writer in Stillwater, MN. He can be reached at saintcroix [at] aol.com.
Ohio AG page about U.S. Navy Vets Assn.
Photo: Karl Bremer © Copyright 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment