How a con man used campaign $ to get his phony Veteran's charity exempted from State law

[JPZenger]

http://www.roanoke.com/columnists/casey/wb/308445

Even though he is now in jail after a manhunt, no one knows con man Bobby Thompson's real name. What is clear is that Thompson from Florida managed to make very carefully targeted campaign contributions to selected Virginia politicians and then shortly afterwards had a law passed in Va. that specifically exempted his phony Veteran's charity from laws intended to prevent phony charities. The vast majority of the money went to Cuccinelli, who called up Thompson and lobbied for more. The Attorney General's office is in charge of regulating and overseeing charities.

Excerpts from the above link:

"Thompson is charged with defrauding Ohio citizens of $2 million for his phony charity, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. It reportedly raised $100 million across the country and spent a pittance on veterans....And if Thompson's capture is causing some gut rumbles in Richmond, it's not hard to understand why...

Because it was here in the Old Dominion that the Florida man pulled off one of his most audacious flimflams. He bought himself a law in the 2010 Virginia General Assembly that would benefit his scam. And many questions remain about how he was able to manage that.

...in 2009, Virginia clamped down on the U.S. Navy Vets. That was because the organization had failed to register with Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, as state law requires. This was an issue for the Navy Vets because Virginia was fertile fundraising ground. It's home to both the Pentagon and the Norfolk Naval Station, the largest naval base in the world...

The fact remains that an out-of-state grifter bought himself a Virginia law so he could continue cheating Virginians out of their own hard-earned money. And he did it by passing $67,500 around Richmond in some amazingly well-targeted campaign contributions, in a pattern that seems to defy coincidence."

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http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/US_Navy_Veterans_Association.html

He was able to run his scam for 7 years until Florida's and Ohio's Attorney Generals took him down.

"The United States Navy Veterans Association (USNVA) certainly looked like a legitimate organization on the surface. This multi-million dollar charity, operating since 1927, was registered with the IRS, run by ex-military men, and had dozens of chapters and 66,000 members nationwide. Legitimate, that is, until media investigations revealed that the charity was not in operation until 2002, had only one member or charity official that could be located, was run out of an individual's duplex in Florida, and appears to have consisted of one man using a fake name for whom no record of U.S. military service could be found"

[MiniMe]

1. Keep this cataloged somewhere when Cuccinelli runs for Governor

[bongbong]

2. Success!

See how well the magical FREE MARKET works???

[dr5645kr]

3. Spam deleted by cyberswede (MIR Team)