Bachmann and Pals Trading Cards - #5 "Bobby Thompson"

From now until the election, Dump Bachmann will be presenting a series of trading cards called "Bachmann and Pals" featuring some of Bachmann's associates. See all the cards at the Dump Bachmann Trading card blog.

Click on the trading card to make it bigger for downloading:



From Karl Bremer's post about Bachmann's pal who goes by the name "Bobby Thompson":

“Thompson’s” $10,000 donation to Bachmann’s congressional campaign, which was shared with the Republican Party of Minnesota, would have qualified him for a table for 10 at the fundraiser, as well as a photo shoot with the two Tea Party queens. However, Bachmann’s campaign has refused to confirm or deny whether “Thompson” actually attended her big-buck affair.
After considerable negative publicity over her connection to the alleged fraudster, Bachmann’s campaign reportedly gave her $4,800 portion of the proceeds to other veterans’ groups. The Republican Party of Minnesota claimed it was going to donate its remaining portion of the dirty money to charity as well.

“Thompson,” a former Florida resident, for unknown reasons took a shine to Minnesota Republican politicians and the Republican Party of Minnesota. Besides the $10,000 he gave to Bachmann, he made the following donations to other Minnesota Republicans and GOP entities:

• $21,500 to Republican Norm Coleman’s Senate re-election campaign from 2006-2008
• $7,000 to the Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee in 2008-2009
• $10,400 to the Republican Party of Minnesota from 2008-2010
• $500 to former Rep. Marty Seifert’s Seifert for Governor Campaign in 2009
• $500 to Republican David J. Carlson’s Citizens for David Carlson committee in House District 67B in 2008.

Read the whole thing.

Minnesota AG Office Looking Into U.S. Navy Vets Scam

AG joins seven other states, IRS and VA looking into shady nonprofit and its commander-on-the-lam, who donated thousands to Minnesota Republican politicians and Minnesota GOP


By Karl Bremer
Copyright 2010.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office has confirmed to Ripple in Stillwater that it is now investigating the allegedly fraudulent U.S. Navy Veterans Association (USNVA), whose Minnesota chapter raised over $1.56 million in Minnesota from 2004-2009 using nothing more than a St. Paul UPS drop box for an address. The group’s Minnesota chapter folded mysteriously in May in the wake of growing investigations nationwide, citing pending legal problems for the organization.

The investigations were sparked by a year-long investigation of the USNVA by the St. Petersburg (FL) Times.
Although the extent of the Minnesota AG’s investigation into the group and its alleged identity-stealing leader is not known at this point, Ben Wogsland, spokesperson for Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, told Ripple in Stillwater last Friday that “we are looking into this.”

A nationwide arrest warrant for identity fraud was issued in August by an Ohio court for a suspect formerly known as “Bobby Charles Thompson,” commander of the shady USNVA. “Thompson,” the only officer among dozens listed for the organization whose existence has ever been confirmed, was listed as commander of the Minnesota chapter of the USNVA until 2009, but has disappeared since he and his group have come under fire.

THE STILLWATER CONNECTION

The group ran largely under the radar in Minnesota until a series of investigative reports I wrote beginning July 6 revealed that “Thompson” had donated $10,000 to Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Stillwater on April 7, the same day as a Minneapolis fundraiser featuring former half-term governor Sarah Palin. One of the last known public appearances by Thompson may have been at the Bachmann-Palin event. “Thompson’s” $10,000 donation to Bachmann’s congressional campaign, which was shared with the Republican Party of Minnesota, would have qualified him for a table for 10 at the fundraiser, as well as a photo shoot with the two Tea Party queens. However, Bachmann’s campaign has refused to confirm or deny whether “Thompson” actually attended her big-buck affair.
After considerable negative publicity over her connection to the alleged fraudster, Bachmann’s campaign reportedly gave her $4,800 portion of the proceeds to other veterans’ groups. The Republican Party of Minnesota claimed it was going to donate its remaining portion of the dirty money to charity as well.

“Thompson,” a former Florida resident, for unknown reasons took a shine to Minnesota Republican politicians and the Republican Party of Minnesota. Besides the $10,000 he gave to Bachmann, he made the following donations to other Minnesota Republicans and GOP entities:

• $21,500 to Republican Norm Coleman’s Senate re-election campaign from 2006-2008
• $7,000 to the Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee in 2008-2009
• $10,400 to the Republican Party of Minnesota from 2008-2010
• $500 to former Rep. Marty Seifert’s Seifert for Governor Campaign in 2009
• $500 to Republican David J. Carlson’s Citizens for David Carlson committee in House District 67B in 2008.

In addition, the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board is investigating a different—and potentially fraudulent—$500 campaign contribution to former House Minority Leader Marty Seifert in 2009 that’s linked to the USNVA.

NAVY VETS' OTHER STILLWATER CONNECTION

“Thompson “ also has ties to Stillwater lobbyist Edwin E. Cain, a close friend of Bachmann's. Cain, who was hired as a consultant by the USNVA to lobby for the group in Virginia last year, and a Mary Cain from the same Stillwater address, also a lobbyist, donated $500 each to David Carlson’s House campaign on the same day as Thompson’s donation was recorded. Thompson and the Cains represented three of the top six individual donors to Carlson’s campaign that year.

While Bachmann and the Republican Party of Minnesota reportedly gave away the $10,000 they took from “Thompson” at the April 7 Bachmann-Palin shindig, there is no indication that other recipients of “Thompson’s” largesse intend to dispense of their allegedly ill-gotten gains. Minnesota is at least the eighth state to be looking into the USNVA. Other states investigating the alleged fraudulent operations of the group include Hawaii, New Mexico, Oregon, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia and Florida. Attorneys general in several states have shut their operations down and in Ohio, a judge has frozen the organization’s bank accounts.
IRS, Veterans Administration, and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services agents seized computer records and documents—some already shredded—from the Tampa-area offices of associates of “Bobby Thompson” this summer. The seizures were made in connection with investigations into the organization by the three agencies.

$1.56 MILLION RAISED THROUGH A UPS BOX

The USNVA operated for over five years in Minnesota out of a UPS drop box on Grand Avenue in St. Paul in apparent violation of state charities laws.
State law requires charitable organizations like the USNVA to register with the Attorney General's Office and file annual reports listing both a “mailing address” and a “physical address.” Yet since it started soliciting funds in Minnesota in 2005, the USNVA never registered any physical address at all with the Attorney General's Office or the IRS—a clear violation of that requirement. Every address listed in the group's state or federal filings leads to drop boxes at UPS stores in St. Paul, Washington, DC, and Tampa, FL.

Even though the Minnesota Chapter of the USNVA officially dissolved in May, its St. Paul-area phone number listed with the Attorney General’s Charities Division—651.645.4570—still carried a message as of Oct. 3, 2010, that says “we are away from our desk” and suggests the group is still operating here.

Out of more than $1.14 million the U.S. Navy Veterans Association Minnesota Chapter claims to have spent on charitable programs and services in Minnesota since 2004, only $26,300 can be positively accounted for: two $10,000 donations to a St. Paul Veterans Center in 2007 and one $6,300 donation to Twin Cities Public Television in 2008

The rest of the money from the organization that went to benefit individuals was allegedly spent to provide such generic things as “direct cash assistance,” food, clothing, publications, “care packages” for service members, and “psychological counseling and comfort” for survivors of veterans. But there is little evidence or documentation of those services in records filed with the state or IRS. Furthermore, the officers for the Minnesota Chapter of the USNVA cannot be found, nor can any address for the group other than UPS drop boxes in St. Paul and several other states be located.

WHO ARE YOU, WHO, WHO, WHO, WHO?

The Ohio arrest warrant was issued by Hamilton County Municipal Court and orders “Thompson” to appear on charges of identity fraud. A detective’s affidavit accompanying the arrest warrant alleges that “Thompson” fraudulently used the Florida identification card of a Bobby Charles Thompson now living in Washington to open a UPS post office box in Cincinnati in April 2003. It also alleges that “Thompson” fraudulently solicited charitable contributions in excess of $100,000 in Ohio from 2003-2010; fraudulently filed annual reports with the state; and falsely stated that the UPS drop box was the organization’s primary Ohio office.

“Our investigators have determined that this individual stole the identity of someone else and used that as the centerpiece of an apparent scam that has continued for seven years and involved tens of millions of dollars,” Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray said. “The real Bobby Thompson, whose identity was stolen, including his Social Security number and date of birth, has absolutely no connection to the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. We don't know who this individual is yet, but we do know that he is not Bobby Thompson.”

Cordray suggested that money collected under the guise of the USNVA may have been used to finance political contributions made by “Thompson.” An August 5 press release from Cordray’s office states:


“There appears to be very little evidence that the organization spent money actually helping veterans or their families. Yet public records do show hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions to various candidates made by “Bobby Thompson” personally or through the political action committee he created and to which he was the sole contributor, NAVPAC.”
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, another Republican officeholder, recently announced that he was finally giving away $55,700 in campaign contributions he received from “Thompson,” but it took a firestorm of public protest for him to do it.
Anyone who saw “Bobby Thompson” at the April 7 Bachmann-Palin fundraiser, or has seen him anywhere else, is urged to contact the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation at 740.845.2224 or 800.282.3784. More information on “Thompson” can be found here.

Cross-posted at Ripple in Stillwater.

VIRGINIA AG CUCCINELLI DUMPS $55,000 IN BOBBY THOMPSON CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS WHILE BACHMANN HANGS ONTO HER $10,000 DONATION

U.S. Navy Veterans Association Commander disappeared after investigations began into his allegedly fraudulent organization, but his paper trail leads to Bachmann’s 2010 re-election campaign.

By Karl Bremer © Copyright 2010

Republican Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced today that he is donating $55,000 in campaign contributions from U.S. Navy Veterans Association Commander-on-the-lam Bobby Thompson to a committee of veterans in Virginia, who will distribute the money to legitimate veterans organizations.

That leaves Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann as perhaps the lone candidate running for office who has not washed her hands of Thompson’s campaign cash. Bachmann received $10,000 from Thompson (PDF) at an April 7, 2010 Minneapolis fundraiser with former halftime Gov. Sarah Palin. When Bachmann’s connections to the growing national scandal surrounding Thompson and the USNVA were exposed in an exclusive report on DumpBachmann, she refused to give away the donation but chose instead to “freeze” the funds in some unexplained way.

Bachmann Campaign Manager Gina Countryman told the St. Paul Pioneer Press: “We will be freezing the money pending the results of the investigations,” and claimed Bachmann didn’t know her $10,000 fugitive donor.

“Congresswoman Bachmann believes people are innocent until proven guilty. However, she wants to ensure her campaign is above reproach and maintains the highest of ethical standards.”

That was Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli’s initial response too, but even he eventually got the drift of the political winds as the investigation by his state’s Office of Consumer Affairs revved up.

“We were practicing the principle of presumed innocence with Bobby Thompson, awaiting proof from law enforcement that the money he had given the campaign was either a legitimate donation or was not his to give,” Cuccinelli said in a statement issued by his campaign.

“With Mr. Thompson's recent disappearance and apparent unwillingness to maintain contact with his own attorneys, it seems that he does not wish to defend himself or the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. Because of this, I chose to divest my campaign of any funds associated with Mr. Thompson,” he added.

When contacted about the status of Bachmann’s $10,000 contribution from USNVA Commander Bobby Thompson, Bachmann Campaign Manager Gina Countryman responded: “Right now I’m packing up my kid and can’t take this right now,” and hung up the phone.

Countryman has not responded to repeated inquiries from this writer about Bachmann’s connection to Bobby Thompson and the USNVA.

Karl Bremer is a freelance writer in Stillwater, MN. He can be reached at saintcroix [at] aol.com.

FORMER HOUSE MINORITY LEADER MARTY SEIFERT BECOMES ENTANGLED IN THE BOBBY THOMPSON-U.S. NAVY VETS MYSTERY

Seifert took a questionable $500 donation from someone alleged to be connected to the shady veterans group under investigation in several states.

By Karl Bremer © Copyright 2010

Former House Minority Leader and Gubernatorial Candidate Marty Seifert is the latest Minnesota Republican to become ensnared in the tangled web of Bobby Thompson and the U.S. Navy Veterans Association (USNVA). This time, it may involve an illegal campaign contribution.

As exclusively reported at Dump Bachmann earlier, Seifert received a $500 donation from Bobby Thompson —the highest allowed by law in a non-election year. The contribution was made to his Seifert for Governor Committee on July 10, 2009. Thompson listed the USNVA as his employer and his address was the same UPS drop box used by the Minnesota Chapter of the USNVA: 1043 Grand Ave. #555, St. Paul, MN 55105.

On the same date, the Seifert campaign received another $500 donation from 1043 Grand Ave. #555 in St. Paul, this one from “Maria D’Annuzio,” who also listed the USNVA as her employer.

In an exhaustive examination of the USNVA Minnesota Chapter’s records filed with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, the name Maria D’Annuzio, or anything remotely similar, has never been found associated with the group as an employee, volunteer, officer or any other capacity. Nor has it ever surfaced in the year-long investigation of the organization by the St. Petersburg Times, according to one source close to the investigation. A Google search of the name comes up empty, and nothing remotely related comes up in various name spelling variations.

CIRCUMVENTING CAMPAIGN LAWS A GROSS MISDEMEANOR

Minnesota state law requires that campaigns collect the name, address and employer of all contributors of more than $100 in aggregate per year. “Contributions from the same contributor must be listed under the same name,” the statute notes.

“An individual or association that attempts to circumvent this chapter by redirecting a contribution through, or making a contribution on behalf of, another individual or association is guilty of a gross misdemeanor and subject to a civil penalty imposed by the board of up to $3,000,” the statute states.

When the mysterious circumstances surrounding the Bobby Thompson and Maria D’Annuzio donations were explained to Seifert Campaign Treasurer Diane Johnson of Cambridge, she promised to look into the matter, as well as a request for cancelled checks or other proof of payment for the donations, as soon as possible.

Campaigns are required by law to retain for four years “records on the matters required to be reported, including vouchers, canceled checks, bills, invoices, worksheets, and receipts, that will provide in sufficient detail the necessary information from which the filed reports and statements may be verified, explained, clarified, and checked for accuracy and completeness.”

The USNVA ran largely under the radar in Minnesota until a DumpBachmann investigation discovered that Thompson, the group’s founder and national commander, had donated $10,000 to Rep. Michele Bachmann at an April 7 Minneapolis fundraiser featuring former halftime Gov. Sarah Palin.

Thompson disappeared soon after the St. Petersburg Times began its lengthy investigation into him and his organization. He’s been missing ever since and is wanted in several states for questioning about the USNVA’s activities and finances. The Bachmann fundraiser is the last known location Thompson has been reported to have been at.

Bobby Thompson has contributed heavily to other Minnesota Republicans and GOP party units. Besides his $10,000 donation to Bachmann and the $500 Seifert donation attributed to him on campaign finance reports, Thompson has donated:

$21,500 to Republican Norm Coleman’s Senate re-election campaign from 2006-2008
$7,000 to the Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee in 2008-2009
$10,400 to the Republican Party of Minnesota from 2008-2010
$500 to Republican David J. Carlson’s Citizens for David Carlson committee in House District 67B in 2008. On that donation, Thompson listed his occupation as “Director Developement (sic) US Navy.”

David J. Carlson has other connections to Thompson and the USNVA as well.

Stillwater lobbyist Ed Cain, who was hired as a consultant by the U.S. Navy Veterans Association to lobby in Virginia earlier this year, and a Mary Cain from the same address, also a lobbyist, donated $500 each to Carlson on the same day as Thompson’s donation was recorded. Thompson and the Cains represented three of the top six individual donors to Carlson’s campaign that year.

Political candidates in other states who took donations from Thompson—with the exception of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican who took $55,500 from Thompson in 2009—have contributed them to other charitable organizations.

Bachmann, however, is not returning the suspicious $10,000 donation she received from Thompson, her donor-on-the-lam. Instead, campaign spokester Gina Countryman told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that the Republican congresswoman has merely “frozen” the funds in her campaign treasury until the investigation into Thompson’s affairs is complete.

This isn’t the first time Michele Bachmann has been caught taking large campaign contributions from questionable sources.

In 2008, it was revealed that Bachmann had received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Frank Vennes Jr. and his family. Vennes is a convicted money-launderer/cocaine runner/gun runner for whom Bachmann had requested a presidential pardon in 2007.

When Vennes became implicated—but never charged—in the Tom Petters multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008, Bachmann quickly rescinded her pardon request for her close personal friend, and then tried to further save face by giving away a portion of the money she had taken from Vennes and family—although it was only $9,200 of the $27,400 she had hauled in from the Vennes family from 2005-2008.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office has refused to confirm or deny whether an investigation is underway into the USNVA Minnesota Chapter, even though the organization’s chapters have been ordered to cease fundraising and/or are under investigation in Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Hawaii, New Mexico, Missouri, Oregon and New Hampshire.

Karl Bremer is a freelance writer in Stillwater, MN. He can be reached at saintcroix [at] aol.com.

MICHELE BACHMANN HAS A HISTORY OF GIVING BACK ‘TAINTED’ CAMPAIGN DONATIONS FROM CONVICTED FELONS AND ALLEGED CON MEN

Putting the $10,000 donation from U.S. Navy Veterans Association founder Bobby Thompson on ice recalls Bachmann’s alleged ‘dirty money’ received from Frank Vennes Jr.

By Karl Bremer © Copyright

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s campaign manager told the St. Paul Pioneer Press this week that Bachmann’s campaign had “frozen” the $10,000 donation it had received from Bobby Thompson, the commander of the embattled U.S. Navy Veterans Association who has gone missing since the St. Petersburg Times and states attorneys general began investigating him.

“We will be freezing the money pending the results of the investigations,” Gina Countryman, Bachmann's campaign manager, told the Pioneer Press. “Congresswoman Bachmann believes people are innocent until proven guilty. However, she wants to ensure her campaign is above reproach and maintains the highest of ethical standards”

But this isn’t the first time Bachmann has had to deal with what may be “dirty money” donated to her campaigns by convicted felons or suspected con artists.

REMEMBER FRANK VENNES JR.?

In 2008, it was revealed that Bachmann had received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Frank Vennes Jr. and his family. Vennes is a convicted money-launderer/cocaine runner/gun runner for whom Bachmann had requested a presidential pardon in 2007.

When Vennes became implicated—but never charged—in the Tom Petters multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme in 2008, it didn’t take long for Bachmann to abandon her principled “innocent until proven guilty” stance. She quickly rescinded her pardon request for her close personal friend, and then tried to further save face by giving away a portion of the money she had taken from Vennes and family—although it was only $9,200 of the $27,400 she had hauled in from the Vennes family from 2005-2008.

Bachmann first tried to give the money to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a favorite evangelical charity of Bachmann’s that once had very close ties to Vennes. He is a former board member of the organization. However, Minnesota Teen Challenge allegedly lost $5.7 million in investments in Petters companies that were made through one of Vennes’ companies.

Rich Scherber, executive director of Minnesota Teen Challenge, said his organization sent Bachmann’s $9,200 check back without even cashing it.

“We didn’t want to be involved if it was dirty money,” Scherber said at the time.

Bachmann eventually found a willing taker for her tainted Vennes money when she donated it to R3, a collaborative of Christian recovery groups that happens to include Minnesota Teen Challenge.

WHERE’S BOBBY NOW?

Meanwhile, the nationwide search for Bobby Thompson goes on.

Bachmann campaign manager Gina Countryman told the Pioneer Press that Bachmann doesn’t know him. It’s not known whether the Bachmann campaign or Bachmann herself has been contacted by investigators or attorneys general seeking information about the whereabouts of Thompson.

It appears certain Thompson was last seen in Minnesota at the April 7 Minneapolis fundraiser for Bachmann featuring former halftime Gov. Sarah Palin, when he made his $10,000 donation to Bachmann. But it’s not clear why Thompson, a resident of Florida for the past decade, would donate such a large sum of money to a relatively powerless congresswoman from Minnesota.

It’s also odd that Thompson is a heavy contributor to other Minnesota Republican candidates and party units. Besides his $10,000 donation to Bachmann, he’s given:

• $21,500 to Republican Norm Coleman’s Senate re-election campaign from 2006-2008


• $7,000 to the Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee in 2008-2009


• $10,400 to the Republican Party of Minnesota from 2008-2010


• $500 to Republican Marty Seifert’s Seifert for Governor committee in 2009


• $500 to Republican David J. Carlson’s Citizens for David Carlson committee in House District 67B in 2008

A spokesperson for the Minneapolis law firm of Gray Plant Mooty, which represented the U.S. Navy Veterans Association Minnesota Chapter in 2007, declined to say whether the firm still represented them.

“We don’t disclose who our clients are,” he said.

The USNVA are under cease-and-desist orders in several states and criminal investigations are underway by attorneys general in others. Troubles for the elusive Thompson and his mysterious organization are mounting weekly.

Yesterday, an Ohio judge allowed lawyers for the group to withdraw from legal proceedings there because Thompson, the group's only known remaining board member, could not be found. The group’s attorneys last heard from him on June 20. The judge also issued an injunction that seals a UPS mailbox that the U.S. Navy Vets used as an address for its Ohio chapter—just as it had done in Minnesota for five years without being questioned by anyone.

Another Ohio judge has frozen the USNVA’s bank accounts there, and Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray has ordered them to cease soliciting in the state.

Cordray has charged that the USNVA has used charitable contributions to the group to make political contributions in Ohio and other states. The Navy Vets group has denied that.

The group’s primary fundraiser, Associated Community Services of Southfield, MI, also jumped ship from the Navy Vets group last week. The Minnesota Chapter of the USNVA paid Associated Community Services $186,025 for fundraising services from 2006-2009. The group did not claim any fundraising expenses for the Minnesota Chapter in 2005.

Messages left at the Minnesota Chapter’s phone number in St. Paul were not returned. A message left on a Tampa, FL-area phone number that was once Thompson’s and features a gruff male voice saying “Bobby” on the voicemail also was not returned.

John Markman is named as the USNVA Minnesota Chapter’s CFO on the group’s 2009 federal tax filing filed with the IRS April 15 and its 2009 annual report filed with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office May 17. Bobby Thompson, who had been listed as CFO and “Contact Person” of the Minnesota Chapter until that time, disappeared from the group’s state and federal filings in 2009 as quickly as he disappeared from his Florida duplex that same year.

The signature on the Minnesota Chapter’s dissolution resolution dated May 4, 2010, also appears to be Markman’s.

If the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office was interested in contacting John Markman—beyond the Washington, DC, UPS drop box he gives as his address on the Minnesota Chapter’s federal tax filing—they should have to look no further than the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. Markman was served with a summons and complaint by certified mail on June 28 in the investigation underway there by Cordray.

What is Attorney General Lori Swanson waiting for?

Karl Bremer is a freelance writer in Stillwater, MN. He can be reached at saintcroix@aol.com.

BOBBY THOMPSON’S U.S. NAVY VETERANS ASSOCIATION OPERATED ILLEGALLY IN MINNESOTA FOR FIVE YEARS WHILE HAULING IN $1.54 MILLION

Thompson disappears after dropping $10K at Bachmann-Palin fundraiser; Michele Bachmann campaign refuses to comment on missing $10,000 donor

By Karl Bremer © Copyright 2010

How can an allegedly fraudulent Minnesota charitable organization take in more than $1.5 million over a five-year period and operate in clear violation of the law with nothing more than a UPS drop box for an address? That's what the Minnesota Chapter of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association did under the not-so-watchful eye of the Minnesota Attorney General's Office from 2005-2009.

State law requires charitable organizations like the USNVA to register with the Attorney General's Office and file annual reports listing both a “mailing address” and a “"physical address.” Yet since it started soliciting funds in Minnesota in 2005, the USNVA has never registered any physical address at all with the Attorney General's Office or the IRS—a clear violation of that requirement. Every address listed in the group's state or federal filings leads to drop boxes at UPS stores in St. Paul, Washington, DC, and Tampa, FL--a fact that can be confirmed with a simple Google search.

Even though the Minnesota Chapter of the USNVA was dissolved at the end of 2009, its St. Paul-area phone number listed with the Attorney General’s Charities Division still carries a message that says “we’re away from our desk” and suggests the group is still operating here.

As a result of a year-long investigation by the St. Petersburg (FL) Times, the USNVA and its founder, Bobby Thompson, has come under investigation for alleged fraudulent activities in several states, including Hawaii, New Mexico, Oregon, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia and Florida. Attorneys general in several states have shut their operations down and in Ohio, a judge has frozen the organization’s bank accounts.

Thompson, the only officer among dozens listed for the organization whose existence has been confirmed, went on the lam since the investigations began and is wanted for questioning in most of them. He appears to have some kind of Minnesota connections.

Thompson’s last known appearance was at a Minneapolis fundraiser for Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on April 7, 2010. Thompson donated $10,000 to Bachmann’s campaign that day in order to have his picture taken with Bachmann and former halftime Gov. Sarah Palin.

Thompson, who lived in Ybor City, Florida, for more than a decade before his disappearance, was listed on tax forms as the CFO of the Minnesota Chapter of the USNVA from 2005-2008. He has donated heavily to Minnesota Republican candidates and political organizations. Besides his $10,000 donation to Bachmann, he’s given:

• $21,500 to Republican Norm Coleman’s Senate re-election campaign from 2006-2008

• $7,000 to the Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee in 2008-2009

• $10,400 to the Republican Party of Minnesota from 2008-2010

• $500 to Republican Marty Seifert’s Seifert for Governor committee in 2009

• $500 to Republican David J. Carlson’s Citizens for David Carlson committee in House District 67B in 2008

Ben Wogsland, spokesperson for Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, says his office is aware of media reports about investigations into the Navy Vets group, but he insisted that under state law, “We can’t confirm or deny an investigation” into the USNVA is underway or has been completed in Minnesota.

Other states have been very public about their investigations into the allegedly fraudulent Navy Vets group. Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray held a press conference about his office’s hunt for Thompson in June.

Unlike Minnesota, Wogsland insisted, attorneys general in some states “actually have the ability to publicize investigations once they begin.”

However, Minnesota statutes state that with regard to investigations into charitable organizations, Minnesota is no different:

“The attorney general: (a) may make public or private investigations within or outside the state as deemed necessary by the attorney general to determine whether any person has violated or is about to violate any provision of sections 309.50 to 309.61 or any rule or order thereunder, or to aid in the enforcement of sections 309.50 to 309.61.”

Section 309.50 references statutes governing charitable organizations who solicit money.

Additionally, the Minnesota Data Practices Act states that “Inactive civil investigative data are public, unless the release of the data would jeopardize another pending civil legal action.”

The USNVA record of giving has come under scrutiny in other states. In Minnesota, its state filings claim that the group took in $1.54 million from 2005-2009 and gave away $1.12 million during that same period on such things as:

“psychological comfort and counseling … to comfort the survivors of veterans.”

“official representation” at Veterans Day and Memorial Day events in Minnesota and Washington, DC.

“promoted specific legislative and executive government action … to expand and enhance domestic security in the War on Terror.”

“aggressively promote the cause of the United States, and of the American value of Freedom, in the world.”

In 2009, the USNVA Minnesota Chapter claimed to have given away $22,666 in “direct cash assistance” to “indigents, indigent families, U.S. Armed Forces Service members or service member families from Minnesota.”

None of the directors listed for the Minnesota chapter of the USNVA have ever been located. The owner of the St. Paul phone number listed for the organization with the attorney general’s office is registered to “Voice American.” Curiously, Thompson was no longer named as CFO of the Minnesota Chapter in the group’s 2009 tax filing received at the IRS April 15—a week after he appeared at the Bachmann-Palin fundraiser. “John Markman,” who also is listed as Commander of the New York Chapter of the USNVA, is now listed as the Minnesota Chapter’s CFO, using the same Washington, DC, UPS drop box for an address as Bobby Thompson used.

The inability of other state authorities to locate directors of USNVA state chapters, or physical addresses other than UPS drop boxes, has led to cease-and-desist orders in Ohio and New Mexico. Other action is certain to follow in more states as the burgeoning nationwide investigation into the U.S. Navy Veterans Association and Bobby Thompson widens.

The Navy Vets’ Ohio counsel recently withdrew from its representation of the group because all its directors have quit or disappeared, the St. Petersburg Times reported last week. The Navy Vets’ chief telemarketing firm, Associated Community Services of Southfield, MI, also has deserted the group, the Times reports.

Other action is certain to follow in more states as the burgeoning nationwide investigation into the U.S. Navy Veterans Association and Bobby Thompson widens.

It is not known whether the Bachmann for Congress campaign has been contacted by investigators in search of Bobby Thompson. Nor is it known whether Bachmann will return Thompson’s tainted $10,000 donation or donate it to charity as she was forced to do with some of the “dirty money” she received from convicted money-launderer and Tom Petters associate Frank Vennes Jr.

Bachmann Campaign Manager Gina Countryman has not responded to this writer’s inquiries about Bobby Thompson.

Karl Bremer is a freelance writer in Stillwater, MN. He can be reached at saintcroix [at] aol.com.



Screenshot of AG registration form (click to enlarge)

DB Posts about Bachmann & the U.S. Navy Veterans Association
7/6/10 - CHARITABLE VETERANS GROUP FOUNDED BY MAJOR MICHELE BACHMANN CONTRIBUTOR IS UNDER INVESTIGATION NATIONWIDE (Karl Bremer)

7/6/10 - Bachmann's Pal Pod Lobbyist Edwin Cain Lobbied for Shady Veterans Charity

7/7/10 - IS MICHELE BACHMANN’S $10,000 DONOR IN MINNESOTA LAYING LOW FROM THE LAW AND THE IRS? (Karl Bremer)

7/8/10 - Will Bachmann Give up the $10K She Got From Snarky Navy Vets Charity?


7/12/10 - Video: Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray Press Conference About U.S. Navy Veterans Assn.

7/15/10 - MICHELE BACHMANN CAMPAIGN PAC TERMINATED AFTER DUMP BACHMANN INVESTIGATION INTO ITS MISSING $10,000 DONOR (Karl Bremer)

More About U.S. Navy Veterans Assoc. and Bobby Thompson

Complaints about U.S. Navy Vets Assn. phone calls.

Ohio AG page about U.S. Navy Vets Assn.

Did Bachmann’s Finance Director, Zandra Wolcott Leave Because...

... of this guy?



DB Posts about Bachmann & the U.S. Navy Veterans Association
7/6/10 - CHARITABLE VETERANS GROUP FOUNDED BY MAJOR MICHELE BACHMANN CONTRIBUTOR IS UNDER INVESTIGATION NATIONWIDE (Karl Bremer)

7/6/10 - Bachmann's Pal Pod Lobbyist Edwin Cain Lobbied for Shady Veterans Charity

7/7/10 - IS MICHELE BACHMANN’S $10,000 DONOR IN MINNESOTA LAYING LOW FROM THE LAW AND THE IRS? (Karl Bremer)

7/8/10 - Will Bachmann Give up the $10K She Got From Snarky Navy Vets Charity?


7/12 - Video: Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray Press Conference About U.S. Navy Veterans Assn.

Also read:

Complaints about U.S. Navy Vets Assn. phone calls.

Ohio AG page about U.S. Navy Vets Assn.

Video: Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray Press Conference About U.S. Navy Veterans Assn.

June 24th press conference featuring Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, talking about legal action being taken against the U.S. Navy Veterans Association (watch Full Video HERE)

Here's Part One of the video on You Tube:



Part Two HERE and Part Three HERE..

Ohio AG Richard Cordray said Bobby Thompson is on the lam:

“As more information emerges about this group and Bobby Thompson, the individual connected with it, the more troubled I am. No one can locate Thompson now—he has disappeared. This is extremely questionable behavior on behalf of a man who had access to millions of dollars raised in the name of Navy veterans. While very little concrete evidence is available how those funds were spent helping vets or their families, a great deal of information is available about political contributions made by Thompson personally to candidates or through the political action committee he created and to which he was the sole contributor, NAVPAC.

“Spread the word. Tell your friends and family. We want all Ohioans to know not to contribute to the U.S. Navy Veterans Association.”

DB Posts about Bachmann & the U.S. Navy Veterans Association
7/6/10 - CHARITABLE VETERANS GROUP FOUNDED BY MAJOR MICHELE BACHMANN CONTRIBUTOR IS UNDER INVESTIGATION NATIONWIDE (Karl Bremer)

7/6/10 - Bachmann's Pal Pod Lobbyist Edwin Cain Lobbied for Shady Veterans Charity

7/7/10 - IS MICHELE BACHMANN’S $10,000 DONOR IN MINNESOTA LAYING LOW FROM THE LAW AND THE IRS? (Karl Bremer)

7/8/10 - Will Bachmann Give up the $10K She Got From Snarky Navy Vets Charity?


Also read:

Complaints about U.S. Navy Vets Assn. phone calls.

Ohio AG page about U.S. Navy Vets Assn.

Will Bachmann Give up the $10K She Got From Snarky Navy Vets Charity?

If you're new to the controversy, read Karl Bremer's summary of Bachmann's connections to Bobby Thompson.

Here's another article, this time from the New Mexico Independent that relates a similar tale about the snarky charity that allegedly kept up to 90 percent of the money raised from donors:

RS documents list Howard Bonifacio as head of the New Mexico chapter, and his address as 388 Boutz Road in Las Cruces. But that address is an empty field, the Attorney General’s Office found. AG officials could find no evidence in tax records or phone books that Bonifacio, or another New Mexico chapter official, Don Archer of 2698 Espina St., Las Cruces, really exist.

“We found nothing but some dirt and some mesquite,” Korsmo said. “And Howard Bonifacio is not in the White Pages of New Mexico; nor is he in the White Pages anywhere in the U.S. Until Mr. Bonifacio comes to talk to us, I’m going to assume he doesn’t exist.”

--snip--

The U.S. Navy Veterans Association, formed in Tampa, Florida in 2002, is registered in New Mexico and 40 other states, and has annual revenues of $22 million, according to a St. Petersburg Times.

You'd think right-wingers who pretend to "support the troops" would be asking Bachmann and others to give the dirty $$$ she got from Bobby Thompson to the real troops.

She didn't mention Bobby Thompson or Navy Vets on this video of her appearance on "Troopathon".