by Gary Snyder
Those big, yellow bins collect a lot of stuff. There more than 1,000 of the bins in the DC area. Planet Aid’s tax records show the non-profit brought in almost $30 million in 2007 by selling the donated items.
But an examination of most recent tax records, Fox News investigators in DC noticed many of the African charities that were to be recipients of the donations had the same address. Planet Aid claims it gave more than $2 million to about a dozen charities in South Africa, for instance. But all of those charities have the post office box in Johannesburg. Investigators found all of the charities listed in Planet Aid’s most recent tax returns are controlled by the same parent organization, a group called International Humana People to People Movement, who according to its own website, also controls Planet Aid.
British, French and Belgians shut down Humana controlled groups after officials found the money wasn’t being used for charity. Investigators say the money paid for multi-million dollar homes, a yacht and off-shore bank accounts controlled by a Danish man named Amdi Pedersen. Pedersen instructed his followers to ensure the money was “protected from theft, taxation and prying by unauthorized persons” by creating a financial network so complex, it would become “a twisted access path with only ourselves as compass holders.”
Danish authorities say Pedersen controls as much as $850 million. Rick Ross, a cult expert, says “Amdi Pedersen has control with a small group of leaders at the top and they control everything,”. “All of the charities, all of the people, all of the cash flow.”
Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, , Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more • Nonprofits: On the Brink (iUniverse, 2006)
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Four Embezzlements And She Finally Gets Caught
by Gary Snyder
Louanne Aponte asked for forgiveness after being sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing more than $1 million from three local nonprofits. Aponte pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree felony theft for stealing more than $800,000 from Family Connections, where she had become executive director in 2004, and more than $100,000 from the Texas Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, where she was treasurer. District Judge Kocurek sentenced her to 25 years on those charges. Family Connections was forced to close because of the embezzlement. Aponte also pleaded guilty to one count of state jail felony theft for stealing about $5,000 from Hyde Park Christian Church, where she volunteered as treasurer.
Aponte has agreed to forfeit to the state her home Southwest Austin, her Mercedes and her boat to repay some of the money she stole. All of those items were paid for, at least partly, with the embezzled money. Prosecutors said the sale will probably generate about $300,000.
The first signs of embezzlement appeared in late 2009 after a state auditor performing a regular review noticed a discrepancy in Family Connections' financial documents. In February 2010 — while state auditors were in the nonprofit's office scrutinizing the books — Aponte said she was going home sick. Instead, she got on a plane and fled to Venezuela.
Over the next week, auditors told Family Connections' board of directors that Aponte had been giving them phony audits. The nonprofit owed the Internal Revenue Service and creditors hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Less than two months later, the charity closed when its funders refused to give it more money. All the employees were laid off. Family Connections filed for bankruptcy, and that case is still winding its way through the courts.
Meanwhile, with Aponte in Venezuela, prosecutors charged her then-husband, Marco Aponte, with money laundering because his name was on bank accounts into which stolen money was funneled. The Apontes have since divorced.
Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, , Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more • Nonprofits: On the Brink (iUniverse, 2006)
Louanne Aponte asked for forgiveness after being sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing more than $1 million from three local nonprofits. Aponte pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree felony theft for stealing more than $800,000 from Family Connections, where she had become executive director in 2004, and more than $100,000 from the Texas Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, where she was treasurer. District Judge Kocurek sentenced her to 25 years on those charges. Family Connections was forced to close because of the embezzlement. Aponte also pleaded guilty to one count of state jail felony theft for stealing about $5,000 from Hyde Park Christian Church, where she volunteered as treasurer.
Aponte has agreed to forfeit to the state her home Southwest Austin, her Mercedes and her boat to repay some of the money she stole. All of those items were paid for, at least partly, with the embezzled money. Prosecutors said the sale will probably generate about $300,000.
The first signs of embezzlement appeared in late 2009 after a state auditor performing a regular review noticed a discrepancy in Family Connections' financial documents. In February 2010 — while state auditors were in the nonprofit's office scrutinizing the books — Aponte said she was going home sick. Instead, she got on a plane and fled to Venezuela.
Over the next week, auditors told Family Connections' board of directors that Aponte had been giving them phony audits. The nonprofit owed the Internal Revenue Service and creditors hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Less than two months later, the charity closed when its funders refused to give it more money. All the employees were laid off. Family Connections filed for bankruptcy, and that case is still winding its way through the courts.
Meanwhile, with Aponte in Venezuela, prosecutors charged her then-husband, Marco Aponte, with money laundering because his name was on bank accounts into which stolen money was funneled. The Apontes have since divorced.
Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, , Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more • Nonprofits: On the Brink (iUniverse, 2006)
Monday, May 16, 2011
Here We Go Again
by Gary Snyder
Here we go… on yet another Blue Cross Blue Shield. This one is in Tennessee. The Chattanooga-based not-for-profit mutual benefit corporation doubled what it pays its directors and chief executive officer in the past five years, boosting the salary for part-time board Chairman Lamar Partridge to $100,000. The Blue Cross board meets about four times a year. One board member said that she spent eight days last year attending to her responsibilities on the Blue Cross board. The 13 board members collectively were paid more than $1.02 million by Blue Cross.
The board raised the compensation package for CEO Vicky Gregg to more than $4.4 million. But in its regulatory filings on salaries paid strictly by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee Gregg’s salary in 2009 was listed as $1.7 million. Most of the compensation for Blue Cross directors and top officers comes from for-profit businesses that Blue Cross has started or bought over the past three decades. In 2009, her contract activated partial vesting of certain deferred compensation, swelling her total pay package that year to nearly $6.2 million.
Sound familiar? In April, Nonprofit Imperative, brought to the attention of its readers similar practices in Massachusetts at its not-for-profit Blue Cross plan. In Massachusetts, the BCBS dropped its board members’ pay after the state attorney general said the longtime practice of paying directors for a nonprofit group can not be justified. “We can’t think of a good reason why, in a not-for-profit setting, they should compensate their directors,” Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said. David Spackman, chief of the state office that oversees nonprofit and charitable organizations in Massachusetts, said paying directors not only diverts money from the nonprofit’s mission, but it “has the potential to impair board independence.” One of its executives topped out at $16.4 million at retirement and remained as a paid board member.
Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, , Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more • Nonprofits: On the Brink (iUniverse, 2006)
Here we go… on yet another Blue Cross Blue Shield. This one is in Tennessee. The Chattanooga-based not-for-profit mutual benefit corporation doubled what it pays its directors and chief executive officer in the past five years, boosting the salary for part-time board Chairman Lamar Partridge to $100,000. The Blue Cross board meets about four times a year. One board member said that she spent eight days last year attending to her responsibilities on the Blue Cross board. The 13 board members collectively were paid more than $1.02 million by Blue Cross.
The board raised the compensation package for CEO Vicky Gregg to more than $4.4 million. But in its regulatory filings on salaries paid strictly by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee Gregg’s salary in 2009 was listed as $1.7 million. Most of the compensation for Blue Cross directors and top officers comes from for-profit businesses that Blue Cross has started or bought over the past three decades. In 2009, her contract activated partial vesting of certain deferred compensation, swelling her total pay package that year to nearly $6.2 million.
Sound familiar? In April, Nonprofit Imperative, brought to the attention of its readers similar practices in Massachusetts at its not-for-profit Blue Cross plan. In Massachusetts, the BCBS dropped its board members’ pay after the state attorney general said the longtime practice of paying directors for a nonprofit group can not be justified. “We can’t think of a good reason why, in a not-for-profit setting, they should compensate their directors,” Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said. David Spackman, chief of the state office that oversees nonprofit and charitable organizations in Massachusetts, said paying directors not only diverts money from the nonprofit’s mission, but it “has the potential to impair board independence.” One of its executives topped out at $16.4 million at retirement and remained as a paid board member.
Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, , Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more • Nonprofits: On the Brink (iUniverse, 2006)
Monday, May 2, 2011
Amazing What This Guy Did
by Gary Snyder
Bobby Charles Thompson ran a bogus nationwide non-profit group, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, and has been charged with aggravated theft, money laundering, identity fraud and corruption. He collected over $20 million and lavishly gave much of that money to politicians which gave him direct access to some of the leading politicians in America.
This is another case where the press uncovered the crime. Charity regulators were absent. Thompson disappeared after the St. Petersburg Times questioned him about some political donations and began publishing an investigative series. Shortly thereafter Ohio brought charges against him where authorities say he donated nearly $300,000 to political causes.
Authorities believe ‘Bobby Charles Thompson’ is not his real name. They are still clueless as to where he is and exactly where all the money went.
It is astounding that this person could get as close to the president and other elected officials without security clearance.
Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, , Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more • Nonprofits: On the Brink (iUniverse, 2006)
Bobby Charles Thompson ran a bogus nationwide non-profit group, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, and has been charged with aggravated theft, money laundering, identity fraud and corruption. He collected over $20 million and lavishly gave much of that money to politicians which gave him direct access to some of the leading politicians in America.
This is another case where the press uncovered the crime. Charity regulators were absent. Thompson disappeared after the St. Petersburg Times questioned him about some political donations and began publishing an investigative series. Shortly thereafter Ohio brought charges against him where authorities say he donated nearly $300,000 to political causes.
Authorities believe ‘Bobby Charles Thompson’ is not his real name. They are still clueless as to where he is and exactly where all the money went.
It is astounding that this person could get as close to the president and other elected officials without security clearance.
Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, , Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more • Nonprofits: On the Brink (iUniverse, 2006)
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