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)
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)
Complaints about U.S. Navy Vets Assn. phone calls.
Ohio AG page about U.S. Navy Vets Assn.
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