VETERANS BEWARE!--Navy "non-profit" charity is a SCAM!

[Gimpy]

Multimillion-dollar nonprofit charity for Navy veterans is a SCAM and is led by a right-wing nut job from Tampa, FL.

The St Pete Times has exposed this POS for what he is ...a PHONY!

Quote from the article:..................

"The organizations "Commander" Bobby Thompson told the Times he was a lieutenant commander in the Navy reserves. Others say he told them he was on active duty around the world. Thompson won't say where or when he served.

The Times could find no military record showing active service. The newspaper was assisted by the POW Network, a nonprofit veterans rights group expert at verifying military records. Using Thompson's voter registration data, POW Network's the Mary Schantag wrote the Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

Archivists there could find no record that Thompson was on active duty. The record section reported that it had also checked with the FBI, "but this agency was not able to furnish any data indicating the veteran served in the U.S. Armed Services."

Read the entire story at the link below!

http://www.tampabay.com/news/militar...ecrecy/1081213

Gimp

[Gimpy]

Below you can find the "link" to Part 2 of this article.

This guy should be locked up in the Federal Pen--- FOREVER!

Gimp

http://www.tampabay.com/news/militar...litics/1081228

[SuperScout]

The page you have requested cannot be found.
It may have moved or may no longer be available.
You may want to try searching tampabay.com for the content you desire.

[Gimpy]

all you had to do was use their seach engine.

But, since you seem unwilling or unable to do so I've copied it here for you below.

You're welcome.

Gimp
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Charity leader's sideline: politics
By Jeff Testerman and John Martin, Times Staff Writers

Published Saturday, March 20, 2010


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Second of two parts

It's an important rule of thumb for organizations the IRS has certified as tax-exempt nonprofits: They should be nonpartisan and refrain from interfering in political contests.

Bobby Thompson, the voice of the IRS-certified, nonprofit U.S. Navy Veterans Association, made clear he knows it: "It's simple,'' he said in an interview. "We do not make endorsements or political contributions."

But Thompson has mixed his nonprofit with his personal politics, which are passionately held and backed by cash.

He contributed his own money three times to the campaigns of Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White. In September, Thompson wrote to Les Miller, who is running against White. Sent under the letterhead of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, the letter convinced Miller he was being asked to drop his campaign and back White.

More than 10 years ago, Thompson helped organize U.S. Navy Veterans for Good Government, later called NAVPAC. That group contributed to dozens of politicians around the country.

The Federal Elections Commission requires that a PAC disclose the name of anybody who contributes $50 or more. In the last seven years, NAVPAC reported raising $146,228 but never disclosed a single donor other than Thompson. He was listed as contributing $1,455 worth of office space.

In an e-mailed response on behalf of NAVPAC, the Navy Veterans Association said NAVPAC has 16,000 members, so its funding "could easily have been accomplished with an average contribution a year of $25 by 1,000 members" since starting.

For six years, the PAC shared the office side of a duplex in Ybor City with the nonprofit Navy Veterans Association, a $600-a-month rental paid for by Thompson that adjoined his apartment.

On FEC documents from 1999 through 2005, Thompson's name, his address or his phone number was listed as NAVPAC's.

The PAC has supported candidates across America, and Thompson has opened his personal checkbook to at least 10 of the same politicians, including Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman's campaign for state Senate and the winning Virginia gubernatorial candidate in 2009, Bob McDonnell.

In an e-mail from an attorney for the Navy Veterans Association, the group said: "Mr. Thompson's political contributions came from nowhere other than his personal funds."

NAVPAC had been in existence since 1999 when the St. Petersburg Times began asking questions about the Navy Veterans Association and the PAC. Two months after the first questions, NAVPAC shut down and the balance of its cash, $16,595.35, was sent to the nonprofit Navy Veterans Association. Also, on the association's Web site, Thompson's name was taken off the board of directors.

• • •

The Navy Veterans Association said Thompson has met personally with political figures ranging from Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio to Gov. Charlie Crist to former President George W. Bush. Two Christmases ago, he sent friends pictures of himself next to Bush.

A photo of Thompson with Iorio was tacked to the front of the unpretentious duplex in Ybor City where Thompson lived and worked. Half of the duplex was his home, the other half was an office that did double-duty for NAVPAC and for the Navy Veterans nonprofit. Thompson helped found both organizations.

He was NAVPAC's first treasurer. The PAC has reported contributing $96,114 to the campaigns of at least 32 candidates, including Bush, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami and former U.S. Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina.

In the past five years, Thompson has made personal contributions of at least $181,950. Local recipients included White and Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee. National recipients included Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain, all former presidential candidates.

Thompson gave $78,375 last year, including three checks totaling $55,500 to Kenneth Cuccinelli, who was elected Virginia attorney general in November. (Virginia does not limit campaign contributions.) Thompson was the second-highest individual contributor to Cuccinelli, a Republican who said while campaigning that he questioned whether President Barack Obama had been born in the United States. After Cuccinelli was elected, he said his office would sue the federal government if an Obama-backed health care overhaul is enacted.

Thompson, who says he received no compensation as a key officer of the nonprofit Navy Veterans Association, was asked about his donations to politicians and where his funds came from.

Per his directions, this question and all others were put in writing and sent through the group's general counsel, Helen Mac Murray, in Ohio.

The association's e-mailed reply mentioned that Thompson had investments, none of which he would identify except Media General, which owns the Tampa Tribune.

In 2007, after seven years of using Thompson's address, NAVPAC changed its address to a rented mailbox on Dale Mabry Highway and listed a new treasurer, Bill Meyers.

If there were other money questions about the PAC, the Navy Veterans advised, Meyers was the one to contact.

Several calls to Meyers at the NAVPAC number in Tampa, telephone number (813) 274-4970, got this recorded message: "Due to the high volume of calls, no one is available right now to take your call."

Messages left were not returned, and Meyers' e-mail address on NAVPAC's Web site is a closed account. He didn't answer a letter sent to the PAC's mailbox.

Other than Thompson, the Times could not find anyone associated with NAVPAC.

The PAC shut down Oct. 12.

The Times posed a series of questions about NAVPAC, but never received any response from the political action committee. Instead, the Navy Veterans supplied responses.

In a letter to the Times, the association offered an explanation for why NAVPAC went out of business.

"NAVPAC dissolved, by the way, we believe, because it was unsuccessful over time, and long before they ever heard of you, in raising funds. We are informed, however, that NAVPAC's former Board did believe that your newest attack on them would have chilled further their ability to raise funds."

NAVPAC's Web site went dark, taking with it a political message describing President Obama as "the voice of fascism, taken directly from the likes of Mussolini and Castro."

NAVPAC's recording remains, saying no one is available "due to the high volume of calls."

• • •

In late December, after the Times started asking questions, Thompson cleared out of the Ybor City duplex he had lived in for a decade and, according to his landlord, left no forwarding address.

Wherever he is, he continues to contribute. On Jan. 6, he gave $1,000 to Steve Hunt, a Navy veteran running for the state Senate in Virginia.

Jeff Testerman can be reached at (813) 226-3422 or testerman@sptimes.com. Researcher John Martin can be reached at (813) 226-3372 or jmartin@sptimes.com.



NAVPAC contributions

NAVPAC, a political action committee started in 1999 by members of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, collected $146,228 in the last decade but never disclosed a single cash donor. Some of the candidates NAVPAC supported:


2000 George W. Bush for president $3,257
2002 Elizabeth Dole for U.S. Senate, N.C. $5,209
2002 Lindsey Graham for U.S. Senate, S.C. $5,209
2002 John Cornyn for U.S. Senate , Texas $5,209
2003 Steve Chabot for U.S. House, Ohio $8,065
2003 George V. Voinovich for U.S. Senate, Ohio $3,080
2004 Lisa Murkowski for U.S. Senate, Alaska $9,377
2006 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for U.S. House, Fla. $9,852
2008 Jeanette H. Schmidt for U.S. House, Ohio $9,344
2008 Rudy Giuliani for president $5,000



Complete lists are at links.tampabay.com.

Sources: Federal Election Commission, Virginia Public Access Project, Florida Division of Elections, Washington Public Disclosure Commission

Bobby Thompson contributions

Bobby Thompson, who helped found both the U.S. Navy Veterans Association and NAVPAC, made at least $181,950 in political contributions in his own name in the last five years. He gave $78,375 last year. Here are some of his contributions:


2006 Kevin White for Hillsborough County Commission $1,000
2007 Rudy Giuliani for president $4,600
2007 Mitt Romney for president $2,300
2007 Norm Coleman for U.S. Senate, Minn. $20,250
2008 National Republican Senatorial Committee $25,000
2008 Elizabeth Dole for U.S. Senate, N.C. $2,300
2008 John McCain for president $500
2009: James Tedisco for U.S. House, N.Y. $2,400
2009 Bob McDonnell for Va. governor $5,000
2009 Kenneth Cuccinelli for Va. attorney general $55,500
2010 Steve Hunt for Va. state Senate $1,000

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[Boats]

This guy should have been nabbed a long time ago. Why
it took so long is beyond me to get this guy. Somehow
this weasle found a system that is sensitive to many
especially if its related to support of our troops.

Shameful as it is - the US system in place should have shut
him down long ago.

No mention of the US NAVY going after this guy? After all
this slander's both the US and the Navy and will have far
reaching abilities to gather funds for such needed purposes.

Long read - but thanks for the heads up.