Thursday, October 28, 2010

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/265400

So far, Blanca Contreras is the only person who has been arrested in the Navy Veterans case. 

A nonprofit group under investigation in Virginia and elsewhere stole up to $100 million in contributions meant for U.S. Navy veterans, according to Ohio authorities.

The allegation, the most sweeping to date against the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, was made this week in court papers that sought a $2 million bond for the first and only person arrested in the case so far.

A judge agreed to set bond in that amount Wednesday for Blanca Contreras, who is charged with running a corrupt organization, money laundering and theft.

Still at large is a man who goes by the stolen identity of Bobby Thompson, authorities said. Thompson is believed to be at the center of a charitable organization that raised millions of dollars through telephone solicitations while its directors were nowhere to be found and its offices were nothing more than mail drop boxes.

As acting treasurer of the U.S. Navy Vets, Contreras was "one of a handful of persons who operated a fraudulent organization ... which defrauded innocent victims of up to one hundred million dollars nationally over the past eight years," Ohio Assistant Attorney General Jim Slagle wrote in a motion to set her bond at no less than $2 million.

Bank records show that Contreras, of Tampa, Fla., withdrew $416,000 in cash from a single U.S. Navy Vets bank account from October 2007 through June of this year, the motion stated. Contreras was arrested in at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina on Oct. 15.

Authorities said they expect to file additional charges against Contreras, 38, who remained in the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center in Cleveland late Wednesday after pleading not guilty during her arraignment.

An assistant public defender appointed to represent Contreras did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday.

In Virginia, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is investigating the U.S. Navy Vets, which according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service raised more than $5 million from state residents before putting its fundraising on hold last year.

Earlier this year, the association lobbied members of the Virginia General Assembly and other key politicians for a law that allowed it to conduct telephone and mail fundraising without having to register annually with state regulators. A man who identified himself as Thompson -- now believed to have been using the stolen identify of someone from Washington state -- gave $67,500 to Virginia politicians last year in advance of the lobbying effort.

Most of the elected officials who received contributions from Thompson, including Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli donated the funds to charity. Cuccinelli received $55,500 of the money.

Authorities have been searching for Thompson since Aug. 5, when he was charged with identity theft in Ohio.

At least seven states are investigating Thompson's organization; the IRS also is involved. So far, Ohio authorities are the only ones to bring charges.