{"id":105371,"date":"2018-08-01T07:33:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T12:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=105371"},"modified":"2018-08-01T07:33:07","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T12:33:07","slug":"ohio-part-of-action-against-vets-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/08\/01\/ohio-part-of-action-against-vets-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio part of action against vets scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n

COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has announced a multistate action against a Florida-based nonprofit accused of misleading donors across the U.S. about how their donations would be used. The action is part of a nationwide crackdown on sham veterans\u2019 charities.<\/p>\n

Help the Vets reportedly collected more than $11 million from donors in Ohio and other states between 2014 and 2016 but used less than 5 percent of it on charitable programming. Instead, the vast majority of funds went to its founder and paid fundraisers.<\/p>\n

Under an action by Attorney General DeWine, the Federal Trade Commission, and the attorneys general of California, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, and Oregon, the organization will no longer be able to solicit donations, it will release its remaining funds to be distributed to other charities, and its founder, Neil G. Paulson Sr., will pay $1.75 million to be used for charitable contributions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many organizations in Ohio and across the U.S. that do great work to help veterans and service members,\u201d Attorney General DeWine said. \u201cUnfortunately there are some groups that only pretend to do this kind of work. We want people to know the difference. Sham charities drain away money and resources that could be used by honest, legitimate organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The action against Help the Vets is part of \u201cOperation Donate with Honor,\u201d an effort by the Federal Trade Commission and officials in every U.S. state to curb giving to fraudulent charities that falsely claim donors\u2019 contributions will help veterans and service members.<\/p>\n

Help the Vets, which also operated under names that included American Disabled Veterans Foundation and Military Families of America, claimed donations would be used to provide medical care and other services to wounded veterans, but investigators found that these programs largely didn\u2019t exist and that any benefit to veterans was \u201cmerely incidental.\u201d Instead, most of the money went to for-profit fundraisers the group hired to collect donations.<\/p>\n

To help Ohioans avoid charity scams, Attorney General DeWine offered the following recommendations:<\/p>\n