Vets Again Taken For A Despicable Ride

Gary Snyder

Help Hospitalized Veterans, a California charity, raked in $65 million in just two years according to tax return, with $44 million has gone to fundraising. That very same fundraising company,  American Target Advertising, turned around and loaned the company $800,000. There is no current explanation. 

Attorney General Harris says the men behind this so-called charity have been helping themselves to excessive salaries and lavish lifestyles while using accounting gimmicks to trick the public into giving -- giving even more money. She has just filed suit. According to the charity's latest filings, the president of HHV, Michael Lynch, was paid a salary of $389,000. And that's just the start. In its complaint, California authorities say money donated for hospitalized veterans also paid for memberships in two country clubs near Lynch's home, a cost of $80,000. Donated funds paid for this condominium near Washington, D.C. for the use of charity executives. 

The Attorney General further suggested that the charity knew that they were misrepresenting the facts to the IRS on their 990 form and were misrepresenting it to such an extent that they inverted the numbers. The AG found that, in fact, over 65 percent of their went to overhead and not to the programs that were intended to help these vets. (link)

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