Bachmann Donor Bobby Thompson Featured on 'America's Most Wanted'

Cross-Posted from Karl Bremer's Ripple in Stillwater blog:

Suspected con man "Bobby Thompson" is now on 'America's Most Wanted'



Fugitive from justice gave tens of thousands of dollars to Minnesota Republicans, including Michele Bachmann and Norm Coleman, which likely came from charitable donations to "Thompson's" sham veterans organization.

By Karl Bremer

The man known as "Bobby Thompson" for years was the poster boy for Republican donors, spreading tens of thousands of dollars around to Michele Bachmann, Norm Coleman and Minnesota House Republicans, among others. Now, he's a poster boy of a different type - "Bobby" is featured on "America's Most Wanted."

The AMW site describes how St. Petersburg Times reporter Jeff Testerman happened on the trail of "Bobby Thompson" two years ago:

In 2008, a St. Petersburg Times reporter, Jeff Testerman, was looking into a local political story when he noticed the U.S. Navy Veterans Association was a contributor to a local county commissioner's campaign.

Seeking a quote from the group, Jeff made multiple calls, leaving multiple messages. But in six months of searching, despite 85 USNVA board members, they could only find one of them: Bobby Thompson.

A Happenstance Confrontation

Jeff made the quick trip over to Thompson's modest Ybor City home and saw Thompson pacing out in front of his home, talking on his cell phone. Jeff asked him a few questions for the story he was investigating, which had little to do with Thompson himself. But Thompson immediately got defensive, going off on a 30-minute diatribe accusing Jeff of using yellow journalism tactics.

A veteran investigative reporter for the Times, Jeff knew something was not right about Thompson, and he intended to find out what it was.

Jeff and his investigative team looked into the organization for six months, and he found a number of very odd things:

-The Association wouldn't disclose where the tens of millions of dollars went.

-The Times couldn't find any of the 83 people listed as board members and executives on the tax forms filed with the IRS to claim tax-exempt status.

-The Association's purported headquarters, at 1718 M St., Washington D.C, was little more than a rented mailbox at a UPS Store.

-Why did the director of a multi-million dollar charity organization live in a dilapidated duplex across from a cigar factory?

Jeff had many questions for the U.S. Navy Vets Association, and there were even more questions about Bobby Thompson himself. But he would learn that the more answers he got, the more questions it would raise.

AMW describes "Bobby Thompson" as 5'10", 200 lbs., brown hair and eyes, and says he often sports a beard and mustache, wears glasses and likes to drink tequila. "Bobby Thompson" is a stolen identity. The man known as "Bobby Thompson" also has used the alias "Ronnie Brittain."

No one knows who "Bobby Thompson" really is. He's been on the lam ever since the St. Petersburg Times investigation began and was last seen in a New York City hotel last June.

The Minnesota Connection

I came across "Bobby's" name while researching campaign contributions to Michele Bachmann's fat-cat fundraiser with former half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin last April. Thompson donated $10,000 to Bachmann's campaign at that event. Further research on Thompson led to Testerman's investigative series and ultimately, an extensive series of articles published here and on DumpBachmann.com on "Bobby's" and the U.S. Navy Veterans Association's questionable operations in Minnesota. That series has led to investigations by the Minnesota Attorney General and Minnesota Campaign Finance and Disclosure Board.

"Bobby's" last political contribution before he disappeared altogether appears to be $5,000 to Minnesota-based Patriot PAC, first reported on Ripple in Stillwater.

Karl Bremer Uncovers Another Veteran Charity Scam Contribution to MN GOP

(Cross-posted from Karl Bremer's Ripple in Stillwater blog).


A Ripple in Stillwater Exclusive

By Karl Bremer

As the nationwide manhunt for the fugitive commander of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association (USNVA) known as “Bobby Thompson” widens, the alleged fraudster’s connection to Minnesota Republicans deepens.

The USNVA was allegedly an elaborate nationwide scam operating as a veterans charity and led by a Florida con artist who stole the identity of another man named “Bobby Thompson.” The organization may have collected as much as $100 million from 2002-2009, most of it unaccounted for. Some of it is suspected to have been funnelled into Republican political campaigns. More than $1.56 million was collected by the USNVA Minnesota Chapter from 2004-2009, and Republican candidates and causes in Minnesota received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from "Thompson" during that time.

The story received national attention when it appeared on ABC Nightly News November 10.



Ripple in Stillwater has learned that following “Thompson’s” controversial $10,000 donation to a Michele Bachmann fundraiser in Minneapolis April 7 featuring former Alaska half-term governor Sarah Palin--the last known contribution the donor-on-the-lam made--he gave $5,000 to a Republican-leaning Minnesota-based political action committee called Patriot PAC on April 26.

Patriot PAC was formed in 2009 by Joey Gerdin, a Republican political operative who serves as its chair. Gerdin was Finance Director of the Minnesota House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) from 2007-2008, during which time the man known as “Bobby Thompson” gave $5,000 to the HRCC and attended a Republican National Convention HRCC event in St. Paul. Next to Gerdin, who donated $11,100 to her own PAC, “Thompson” is Patriot PAC’s second largest contributor.

Gerdin says she doesn’t remember how she became connected with “Thompson.” Because of his donation to her PAC, she’s been contacted by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which has a nationwide arrest warrant out on “Thompson” for identity fraud.

The Ohio Attorney General's Office has aggressively pursued the case and claims donations to the USNVA weren't used to aid veterans but instead, diverted to political causes by "Thompson." It earler had a nationwide arrest warrant out on "Thompson" for identity fraud, and more recently indicted "Thompson" and an alleged accomplice on corruption, money laundering and theft charges.

The Ohio AG's Office also has released a number of photos of the man known as "Bobby Thompson" posing with prominent Republican politicians such as George W. Bush, John McCain and John Boehner, as well as Republican operative Karl Rove.


'TYPICAL PATRIOT' AT THE 2008 RNC
To Gerdin, Thompson was just another political donor prospect. When raising money for the HRCC, says Gerdin, “I would just call anyone and everyone. I honestly don’t even remember if I cold-called him or he cold-called me. He was coming in for the RNC (Republican National Convention), and I was having a fundraiser downtown with the House caucus.”

Gerdin says she met the alleged con man in St. Paul at the fundraiser she hosted.

“He seemed like a nice guy, completely congenial, supportive of veterans. Seemed like your typical patriot to me.”

The Ohio Attorney General investigator asked her about bank records for the donation to her PAC, she says.

“The check that I got came from him personally, that I know,” she says.

While some politicians—including Bachmann and reportedly the Republican Party of Minnesota—have donated money they received from “Thompson” to other veterans groups following the glare of bad publicity, Gerdin says she has no intention of doing so at this time.

“The money was given to me from an individual who wanted to elect veterans to office … that’s what I basically used it for,” she says. She says she will eventually look further into the matter once things settle down with her current duties as finance director for 8th District Congressman-elect Chip Cravaack.

'BOBBY THOMPSON' LOVES MINNESOTA REPUBLICANS
For reasons yet unknown, “Bobby Thompson,” a Florida resident with no apparent Minnesota connections, showered tens of thousands of dollars on Minnesota Republican politicians and the Republican Party of Minnesota. Besides the $10,000 he gave to Bachmann and the $5,000 he gave to Patriot PAC, 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.

Norm Coleman and the Republican Party of Minnesota have not responded to repeated inquiries about their relationship with “Bobby Thompson.”

I wrote an exclusive series of reports on the DumpBachmann blog earlier this year examining the political connections between Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and the man known as “Bobby Thompson,” as well as "Thompson’s" other connections to Minnesota Republicans and the state GOP. (See the links at the end of this article.)

In my series of articles, I also detailed the USNVA’s shady operations in Minnesota from 2004-2010. My reports were based initially on a year-long investigation of the USNVA by the St. Petersburg Times newspaper, which sparked legal inquiries into the group in at least eight states and by the IRS and Veterans Administration.

The group’s Minnesota operations closely paralleled the allegedly fraudulent operations uncovered in other states. Once the investigations into the USNVA began to gather steam nationwide, the Minnesota Chapter was mysteriously dissolved last May.

After my reports about “Thompson” and the USNVA appeared online, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office began looking into the group’s Minnesota operations.

Minnesota media, with the notable exception of the St. Paul Pioneer Press's Jason Hoppin, have largely ignored the story.

Meanwhile, Blanca Contreras, an alleged co-conspirator of “Thompson’s,” has been arrested and arraigned by Ohio authorities on charges of racketeering, money laundering and theft of more than $1 million. According to court documents, Contreras “personally withdrew $416,000 in cash from a single USNVA account” between October 2007 and June 2010.

Contreras is being held on $2 million bail.

While Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray has been the most aggressive in pursuing the man known as “Bobby Thompson,” that could change. Cordray lost in the Nov, 2 election to Mike DeWine, who once received a $500 political contribution in a U.S. Senate campaign from “Bobby Thompson.”

MORE ON 'BOBBY THOMPSON,' THE USNVA AND MINNESOTA REPUBLICANS

http://tinyurl.com/bachmann-bobby-thompson

http://tinyurl.com/bobby-thompson-in-minnesota

http://tinyurl.com/usnva-in-minnesota

http://tinyurl.com/bachmann-pac-and-bobby

http://tinyurl.com/usnva-minnesota-dissolves

http://tinyurl.com/bachmann-tainted-donations

http://tinyurl.com/usnva-breaks-mn-laws

http://tinyurl.com/usnva-minnesota-money-trail

http://tinyurl.com/seifert-navy-vets

http://tinyurl.com/cuccinelli-bachmann-money

http://tinyurl.com/bachmann-dumps-dirty-money

http://tinyurl.com/federal-agent-raid

http://tinyurl.com/seifert-CFB-investigation

http://tinyurl.com/bobby-thompson-warrant

http://tinyurl.com/Minnesota-AG-investigation

MinnPost on The Purse-Holder Thanking Dump Bachmann

Derek Walbank at MinnPost:

Meanwhile, Team Bachmann — which also spent big on word-linked online advertising — said this morning that it actually financed a last minute get-out-the-vote mailer to Anoka County using $12,000 in donations that it raised off such ads that found their way on the anti-Bachmann blog DumpBachmann.com.

"DumpBachmann blog advertising raised @teambachmann $12,000 THANK YOU we were able to mail all of Anoka County one last time with that cash!" Bachmann adviser Andy Parrish tweeted earlier today.

Someone should fact-check that $12K figure. We don't have that many readers.

Anyways, it should also be noted that Team DumpBachmann COST Bachmannn thousands of dollars when we reported on the dirty $$$ she got from Frank Vennes Jr. and U.S. Navy Veterans Assoc. scam artist Bobby Thompson.

Also, I'm guessing Team DumpBachmann cost her a lot of money for high-priced lawyers who worked on the Edwatch complaint.

TPM Article on Wanted Scam Artist and Bachmann & GOP Donor Bobby Thompson

Talking Points Memo reports:

The Ohio attorney general's office announced this month that a grand jury had indicted an alleged charity scammer, who donated tens of thousands to conservative pols, on charges of money laundering and grand theft.

The man, known as "Bobby Thompson," allegedly operated a charity called U.S. Navy Veterans Association from 2003 to 2010. The charity took in millions, and Thompson allegedly pocketed some 90 percent of the cash.

He used some of the money to make huge donations to conservative political candidates, including $55,000 to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and $10,000 to Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Both have given the donations away to (presumably real) charities, and there's no indication they knew the money was coming from a scammer.

Karl Bremer reported October 3rd at Ripple in Stillwater about the arrest warrant and AG action here in Minnesota.

Check out the photo gallery of Bobby Thompson with GOP politicos like George Bush, John McCain and more.

Bachmann's Name Pops Up in U.S. Navy Vets Assoc. Fraud Article

St. Petersburg Times:

TAMPA — An Ohio grand jury has returned corruption, theft and money laundering indictments against Bobby Thompson, the man who masqueraded as a retired lieutenant commander and ran the multi-million-dollar U.S. Navy Veterans Association for nearly a decade from an Ybor City duplex.

The indictments, made public Friday morning, accuse Thompson and Tampa associate Blanca Contreras of operating a corrupt enterprise, engaging in money laundering and stealing more than $1 million from the citizens of Ohio through the Navy Veterans charity.

--snip--

The Times also found that Thompson channeled large amounts cash to politicians, ranging from $500 to Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White to $10,000 to Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and $55,500 to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Though he donned formal attire to attend balls in Washington D.C. and sent Christmas cards showing himself posing with President George W. Bush, Thompson kept to himself, had no drivers license and lived in a $600-a-month Ybor City duplex across the street from a cigar factory.

After the Times questions mounted last year, Thompson cleared out of his duplex, left his landlord no forwarding address and disappeared.

Karl Bremer discovered the contribution to Bachmann and broke that story right here on Dump Bachmann.

See Karl's latest stuff at the Ripple in Stillwater blog.

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.

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.

STATE CAMPAIGN FINANCE BOARD INVESTIGATING $500 CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION TO MARTY SEIFERT TIED TO SHADY U.S. NAVY VETS

State agency takes action after complaint points to suspicious donation linked to fraudulent organization

By Karl Bremer © Copyright 2010

A suspicious $500 campaign contribution to former Republican Minnesota House Minority Leader Marty Seifert’s gubernatorial campaign last year is being investigated by the state Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board (CFB). The donation is linked to the U.S. Navy Veterans Association (USNVA), an organization that raised over $1.56 million in Minnesota over six years before mysteriously dissolving in May. The group is now under investigation for fraud by the IRS, Veterans Administration and several state authorities.

The CFB Board agreed to initiate an investigation after a complaint drawing attention to the possibly fraudulent contribution was filed by this writer with CFB Executive Director Gary Goldsmith.

As exclusively reported at Dump Bachmann, 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.

Seifert Campaign Treasurer Diane Johnson of Cambridge 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 when notified about the possible fraudulent donation in July. However, Johnson did not respond to subsequent inquiries regarding the matter.

The USNVA ran largely under the radar in Minnesota until a Dump Bachmann 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 half-term 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.

Bowing to pressure from DumpBachmann, Bachmann and the state GOP announced last week that they were giving away the $10,000 April 7 donation from Thompson—just two days before federal agents swooped down on the home of Thompson’s suspected former associates in Florida and seized computer records and files.

It’s not known whether federal or state authorities have contacted the Bachmann campaign, the Republican Party of Minnesota or Norm Coleman about the tens of thousands of dollars they received from Bobby Thompson and the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. The Bachmann campaign, Norm Coleman’s office and the Minnesota GOP did not respond to inquiries about the matter.

The Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board will make a public finding within 30 days of the complaint’s filing as to whether there is probable cause to believe a violation has occurred with regard to the $500 contribution from “Maria D’Annuzio” to Marty Seifert’s campaign.

Minnesota statutes state that “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.”

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

FEDERAL AND STATE AGENTS SEIZE RECORDS OF U.S. NAVY VETS AND BOBBY THOMPSON IN FLORIDA

Minnesota Attorney General says nothing about an investigation of the group’s Minnesota Chapter, which raised over $1.56 million here since 2004 and then mysteriously dissolved May 4.

By Karl Bremer © Copyright 2010

IRS, Veterans Administration, and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services agents today seized computer records and documents—some already shredded—from the Tampa-area offices of associates of Bobby Thompson, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association commander-on-the-lam. The seizures were made in connection with investigations into the organization by the three agencies.

According to a report in the St. Petersburg Times:

Armed with a search warrant, federal and state agents on Friday seized documents and computer records from the Clair-Mel home of residents who served as assistants to Bobby Thompson, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association director who vanished last month.

Criminal investigators from the IRS, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services arrived at the home at 2062 Balfour Circle Friday morning and seized boxes of documents — some already shredded — and loaded them into an unmarked van.

The residence is listed as the home of Nancy Contreras, 20, according to records. She and her mother, Blanca Contreras, 38, a former citrus processing plant employee, have been associates of Thompson and recently signed as Navy Veterans officers on registration papers in several states.

Thompson has contributed heavily to Minnesota Republicans and GOP party units. He’s given tens of thousands of dollars to Michele Bachmann, Norm Coleman and the Republican Party of Minnesota, as well as former House Minority Leader Marty Seifert and House candidate David J. Carlson.

Following an exclusive DumpBachmann investigation into the money trail leading from Thompson to Bachmann, the Republican congresswoman and the state GOP were forced this week to give away $10,000 that Thompson had donated to the Minnesota-Bachmann Victory Committee at her April 7 Minneapolis fundraiser with former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin.

After operating for six years and raising over $1.56 million, the Minnesota Chapter of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association was mysteriously dissolved May 4, citing pending legal liabilities that could sink the group. It’s been shut down in several states and is under civil or criminal investigation in some.

However, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office continues to stonewall inquiries about any current or pending investigation of the group in Minnesota.

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

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.

U.S. NAVY VETS GROUP APPEARS TO HAVE BROKEN STATE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS

Organization led by top Bachmann donor raised over $1.5 million and played ‘musical mailboxes’ with the Attorney General for five years before dissolving in the wake of nationwide investigations.

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

U.S. NAVY VETERANS ASSOCIATION MINNESOTA CHAPTER DISSOLVES UNDER FIRE FROM POTENTIAL ‘LEGAL LIABILITIES’

USNVA founder and Michele Bachmann $10K donor Bobby Thompson still on the lam.

By Karl Bremer © Copyright 2010

The United States Navy Veterans Association Minnesota Chapter was dissolved on May 4, 2010, because the embattled organization is facing potential legal liabilities that could sink it.

The group has operated in Minnesota since 2005 and raised more than $1.5 million using nothing more than a UPS drop box on Grand Avenue in St. Paul as its “physical address” filed with the state Attorney General. Following a year-long investigation by the St. Petersburg Times, the group has come under investigation for allegedly fraudulent activities in several states, cease-and-desist orders have been filed against it in others, and an Ohio judge has frozen the assets of the group’s Ohio chapter due to a widening attorney general’s probe there.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office is aware of the serious allegations against the Navy Vets group. However, its spokespersons refuse to say whether an investigation into the group’s Minnesota Chapter is underway.

The USNVA’s founder and commander, Bobby Thompson, disappeared from his Florida address after the Times’ reporters started asking questions about the Navy Vets group. Thompson was listed as the CFO of the group’s Minnesota Chapter from 2005-2008.

He was last seen at a Minneapolis fundraiser for Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann on April 7, where he donated $10,000 to have his picture taken with Bachmann and former halftime Gov. Sarah Palin.

The Bachmann campaign has not responded to multiple inquiries about Bobby Thompson. It’s not known whether investigators have contacted the Bachmann campaign or the congresswoman herself regarding Thompson’s whereabouts.

Curiously, Thompson, who has lived the past decade in Florida, is a heavy contributor to Minnesota Republicans Bachmann and former Sen. Norm Coleman, as well as the state Republican Party and other GOP candidates. 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

Given his recent appearance with Michele Bachmann, Thompson is thought by some to be on the lam somewhere in Minnesota.

Nate Brennaman, manager of the charities and civil enforcement division at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, said he is aware of the multiple state investigations and cease-and-desist orders involving the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, as well as the frozen bank accounts of the USNVA in Ohio. However, he was not aware that his office had nothing more than a UPS drop box address on file for the group’s physical address in five years of operation. UPS drop boxes in St. Paul, Washington, DC, and Tampa, FL, appear in state and IRS filings as the group’s mailing address or location of financial information.

The USNVA Minnesota Chapter sent the Attorney General’s Office a copy of a resolution of dissolution adopted by its board of directors on May 4. It states that its assets and liabilities are zero and no further income is expected. Its last tax filing for 2009 shows remaining assets of $19,521 at the end of the year. It’s not clear where that balance went between then and May 4.

The resolution goes on to state that the organization “at no time possessed a reserve fund for potential legal liabilities” and that “the Chapter is confronting potential claims for dollar legal liabilities which, if actionalized in whole, would cause the chapter to be insolvent.” The resolution bears what appears to be the signature of the Minnesota Chapter’s most recent CFO, John Markman, except he’s listed as the “Acting Secretary of the Chapter” here.

The USNVA operated in Minnesota for five years without any apparent confirmation of its lack of a physical address in the state—a clear violation of the information requirements (PDF) stated on initial and annual reporting forms for charitable organizations operating in the state.

Charitable organizations that take in more than $350,000 a year by law must provide the state with an “audited financial statement … that has been examined by an independent certified public accountant.” The USNVA’s highest reported revenues in Minnesota were $349,205 on its 2008 taxes and thus, they were never required to file an audited financial statement.

The organization still lists the Minnesota Chapter on its website, although it’s now called the Minnesota Division. The St. Paul-area phone number listed on the website—651.649.4570—and also 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. One source says the voice on the answering machine at that number is Thompson’s.

Edwin Cain, a Stillwater lobbyist who has worked for the USNVA, says he hasn’t talked to Bobby Thompson for over a year.

“I did a little work for them (USNVA) in Washington,” says Cain, who is also good friends with Bachmann. He says he met Thompson several years ago at a political reception around Christmas time, but he doesn’t recall the politician for whom the reception was being held.

Cain added that he was aware of “some trouble the (Minnesota) attorney general was trying to cause for Thompson over there” but he couldn’t be more specific.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office made a single inquiry into the activities of the USNVA during its five years of operation here. On March 23, 2007, Cyndi Nelson, registration administrator for the Attorney General, wrote to Thompson at the group’s Tampa, FL, address on file with the state—also a UPS drop box—and also to Jack Nimitz, an officer with the group who lists a Washington, DC, UPS box as his address.

“It has been brought to the attention of this Office that you may be soliciting or receiving contributions from the public in the State of Minnesota,” Nelson wrote, and informed the group that they were not properly registered to do so.

However, by that time, the USNVA Minnesota Chapter had filed two years’ worth of IRS Form 990s with the state that showed $668,735 in revenues. Its 2006 annual report filed with the AG’s Office listed $74,963 in fundraising fees paid to Associated Community Services of Southfield, MI.

A St. Petersburg, FL, law firm initially responded to the state on behalf of Thompson and the USNVA. However, the Minneapolis law firm of Gray Plant Mooty responded three weeks later on behalf of the USNVA Minnesota Chapter, which it described as “our client,” and promised compliance with the law in future fundraising efforts.

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, which the Minnesota Chapter used, also has deserted the group, the Times reports.

******

UPDATE: The PiPress has an article about Bobby Thompson and USNVA:

A fundraiser and political donor whose charity collected more than $1 million in Minnesota, supposedly to help military veterans, lavished thousands of dollars on Minnesota politicians. Now, Bobby Thompson has disappeared, and attorneys general across the country are investigating whether his group was ever legitimate.

Thompson, the mysterious head of a nationwide veterans group called the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, is a Florida resident. But 35 percent of Thompson's more than $100,000 in federal donations over the past four years have gone to Minnesota candidates — primarily Republicans — and causes. That includes a $10,000 donation for a high-profile fundraiser in April featuring Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin.

"We will be freezing the money pending the results of the investigations," said Gina Countryman, Bachmann's campaign manager, who added that Bachmann does not know Thompson.

"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."

Thompson's donation was made April 7, suggesting he attended the Minneapolis fundraiser. It is not clear if he was photographed with Palin at that evening's fundraiser, which included opportunities for photos with the former Alaska governor — at $10,000 a pop.

At the time of the fundraiser, Thompson was the subject of a yearlong investigation by his local paper,

--snip--

The state suits frequently involve violations of laws requiring charities to provide actual addresses rather than mailboxes. As first reported on the local blog DumpBachmann, the address listed for Navy Vets' Minnesota chapter traces to a UPS Store on Grand Avenue, which is illegal under Minnesota law. An employee there said the company could not give out the name of the person who rented the mailbox.

A spokesman for Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson would neither confirm nor deny any investigation.

On May 4, the group filed a dissolution notice with the AG's office, which oversees groups that accept charitable donations. The signature on the notice is illegible, but it does cite "potential claims for dollar legal liabilities."

Efforts to locate Thompson were unsuccessful. A message left at the Minnesota chapter's office was not returned, and phone numbers listed on various public documents for Thompson appear to have been disconnected.

The Florida attorney general's office, which first took action against Navy Vets in April, now says it cannot locate Thompson. And last week, the Navy Vets' Ohio lawyer asked a judge for the right to withdraw from the case, since the lawyer had been unable to reach anyone affiliated with the group since June 20.

Thompson's connection to Minnesota is unclear, but he is active in Minnesota politics. His donations include $10,000 to the Palin fundraiser, an event supported through a joint fundraising committee between Bachmann and the Republican Party of Minnesota. He also donated nearly $20,000 to former Sen. Norm Coleman's 2008 re-election bid and more than $10,000 to the Republican Party of Minnesota, including one on May 6 — two days after the Minnesota chapter of Navy Vets was dissolved.

Another connection appears to be through a Stillwater lobbyist named Edwin Cain, who is pictured on Bachmann's U.S. House website with his arm around the second-term Republican.

It's a good article read the whole thing.

Picture of Edwin Cain and Bachmann as it appears on Bachmann's congressional website (Click on screenshot to make it bigger):

Ohio TV News Report on U.S. Navy Veterans Association

WCPO I-Team report by Hagit Limor

There aren’t many records on Thompson either, but there are a few photos including a Christmas card he sent with a photo of himself standing next to President George W. Bush. How did he get access to the president? It might have something to do with the other group he ran from that duplex, a political action committee called NAVPAC that donated almost $100,000, mostly to conservative Republicans across the country. Thompson himself wrote checks for another $190,000.

Cordray says, "He was actually financing a nationwide political operation through taking money from charitable contributions from Ohioans and others."

Watch:

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.