What Will It Take To Stop the Cheating of Veteran Organizations?

by Gary Snyder

We have seen hundreds of millions of dollars scammed from veterans organizations. They are popping up so fast that enforcement agencies can't keep up with the explosion. It is virtually a daily occurrence.

The key players in the latest one were just indicted. A federal grand jury named five people, including the head of the National Association of Systems Administrators Education Corp., and the Liberating Solutions Corporation, a Crystal Lake, Illinois non-profit agency, designed to work with with homeless veterans. The government says thay they defrauded veterans, businesses and the federal government.

According to its website, Liberating Solutions works with NASA Education's "Fresh Start Program," which trains and then places homeless or disabled veterans within a company. Liberating Solutions has done event planning, construction and landscaping work and has worked with the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and the City of O'Fallon.

The indictment also charges that five defendants failed to pay legally required wages to the military veterans, under NASA's education program, for work received from federal and local contracts.

It also charges the defendants for fraudulently keeping excess federal grant funding related to NASA Education's semi-annual "Stand Down" event, which provides veterans throughout the suburbs with food, clothing, consultation and networking opportunities.

The U.S. labor department provides an organization with up to $10,000 to sponsor the event and requires the group to submit receipts for the costs for putting on the event. The indictment charges NASA Education for falsely claiming that certain expenses were incurred by Liberating Solutions.

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 (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)