Posted: 10/15/2010

Last Updated: 23 hours and 39 minutes ago

http://www.kypost.com/dpps/news/local_news/investigations/Attorney-General-calls-veterans%E2%80%99-charity-chief-a-corrupt,-money-laundering-thief_5247046

Produced by Phil Drechsler

CINCINNATI - Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray laid down the hammer Friday on a man he says took millions of dollars in donations but never delivered to the Navy veterans in whose names he solicited funds.

A grand jury in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) indicted the man known as Bobbby Thompson on three felony charges: aggravated theft, money laundering, and engaging in corrupt activity.

The indictment coincided with the arrest Friday morning of a Tampa woman Cordray says continued the operations of the United States Navy Association after Thompson disappeared earlier this year. Blanca Contreras faces the same felony charges accusing her of stealing “more than $1.9 million from Ohio citizens,” Cordray says, “money that they should have either kept for themselves or would have presumably given to legal and legitimate veterans organizations in our state.”

Police are holding Contreras in Charlotte, North Carolina, pending extradition to Ohio.

The Attorney General’s office also confirmed Friday a second identity for the man they already had charged with stealing the name “Bobby Thompson” from a resident of Washington state. Investigators say he also has been using the name of an Indiana man, Ronnie D. Brittain, for a decade.

Thompson ran a nationwide group he claimed had more than 60,000 members in 41 states. He called it a charity and filed IRS tax returns that claimed more than $20 milllion a year. Donors thought they were contributing to veterans but investigators have found little proof the money helped vets. Instead, Cordray says Thompson diverted the donations to his own political donations across the nation.

“It's very aggravating to us to have that money diverted out of Ohio and find it going to an array of corrupt activities including potentially fraudulent political contributions to political candidates.”

The organization used a UPS mail drop in downtown Cincinnati as its Ohio headquarters.

Thompson remains a fugitive. Nine states and federal agencies are investigating him and the group he ran for almost a decade.