Monterey, CA Veterans Charity Exposed As Fraud

View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California It's extremely difficult to get a tax-exempt status from the I.R.S. and for good reason.  There have been a number of recent cases where people have profited from non-profits and the I.R.S has been aggressively going after them to revoke their status and extract penalties, and I applaud them for that. There have even been some criminal cases recently, and one of the biggest was announced this month when state and federal investigators swooped in on Allied Veterans of the World and arrested 50 people in six states.  Although the group did donate to many veterans organizations across the country, the leaders of the so-called non-profit are being charged with stealing almost $300 million that was taken in via strip-mall casinos which were made to look like Internet cafes.  Authorities say that less than 2% of the funds brought in between 2008 through 2012 went to veterans.  The group was able to get away with this for so long because they routed the money through a network of more than 100 different companies.  The I.R.S. is now identifying risk models they can implement so they can uncover these schemes earlier.  I hope these are successful.  It's shameful for criminals to be able to hide behind the veil of a fake non-profit.  Unfortunately, there just aren't enough resources for state and federal investigators to police these companies properly.  Hopefully, developing sophisticated risk models will help them do it more cost effectively.  Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands To Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.