Noteboom The Law Firm

US Navy Veterans Association Banned From Fundraising

August 5, 2010 - Both Federal and State agents served search warrants on a Clair-Mel home in Tampa. The home belonged to assistants to Bobby Thompson. This is the same Bobby Thompson who was the Director of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association and who disappeared last month. The team of agents seized boxes of documents and included personnel from:  

• The IRS;
• The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); and
• The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The Navy Veterans was founded in Tampa in 2002 and since then has claimed $99.6 million in tax-exempt income. They have also claimed staff officers that never existed and cannot account for millions of dollars of those donations. Once reports of these problems surfaced, Sen. Jim Webb requested both the IRS and the VA investigate the Navy Veterans.

Florida Consumer Services ordered the Navy Veterans to cease all fundraising in the state after discovering the listed addresses for the charity's officers were either phony or non-existent. Of the 85 directors and officers the Navy Veterans boasted were part of their charity, 84 of their office addresses were post office boxes and 84 officers could not be located. Further, the majority of the charitable gifts the Navy Veterans claimed to have made could not be documented or established as having been made.

Once Thompson faced questions about his military history and his charity, he simply left and is still missing. The more investigators dig into the Navy Veterans charity, the more corruption and lies seem to be discovered. Florida is not the only state investigating the Navy Veterans, there are at least 7 other states looking into their apparently fraudulent fundraising.