I posted a comment on 01/12/10 and I regret that comment. After talking to newspapers, and veterans in New York State, I am 100 percent sure that the Veterans Support Organization is a huge scam that we New Yorker's need to stop as soon as possible. This article is from December 27, 2009. It talks about how there scam is run. Please read below.
Mall solicitors irk local veterans groups
Richard Liebson and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
[email protected]
They kind of look like soldiers, standing in The Westchester mall in their store-bought camouflage fatigues. But they aren't.
The first hint that they have nothing to do with the military is that their "uniforms" bear no rank, insignia or unit patches. The dead giveaway comes when they ask you for a cash donation to help veterans — active-duty service members are prohibited from panhandling.
For the past several weeks, members of the Veterans Support Organization have been soliciting money at The Westchester and other Lower Hudson Valley sites, claiming that they're providing holiday meals for local homeless veterans and making donations to veterans hospitals and other local programs to help veterans.
The fact is, 25 percent to 30 percent of what they collect goes into their pockets, as part of what the VSO describes as a "work program." The group's founder admits that many members have never served in the armed forces and could not provide proof that the VSO has made any contributions to local veterans.
Financial records obtained by The Journal News show that about 31 percent of the more than $1 million they took in annually nationwide in 2007 and 2008 went to veterans assistance and services. Much of the rest is listed as "programs" expenses used to pay for rent and office supplies, travel costs, subcontractors and compensation for VSO executives.
Although the group's literature lists an address in Mount Vernon, that office has not yet opened.
"I've never heard of them, " said Roger Paulmino, team leader of the Department of Veterans Affairs Outreach Center in White Plains. "They've never contacted us about making a donation or providing any kind of service. At this time of year, there are a lot of bogus groups out there. I usually advise people to contact the Attorney General's Office if they have suspicions."
Joe Waldron, commander of White Plains American Legions Post 135, was more blunt.
"It sounds like a scam to me, " he said. "Even if they're contributing 30 percent somewhere, that doesn't seem like much to me. And if the people collecting the money are keeping 25 percent of the take, that's very suspect activity. I think the state attorney general should take a look at them."
Waldron said his post raises $35, 000 to $40, 000 through its bar and uses the money to host parties and activities for patients at the Montrose VA hospital, a scholarship program and donations to local charities. "Virtually all of our money is spent on local veterans and community charities, " he said.
VSO insists it helps
Josh Bittleman, program and housing coordinator for the VSO New York chapter, maintained that nearly 70 percent of the funds raised by VSO helps veterans by expanding the organization and its varied services.
"We understand that the local groups sometimes don't like other groups coming in the area, " he said. "And that's just the way it is. We understand that."
Bittleman insisted that the VSO is helping veterans. He said it has pumped nearly $300, 000 into its planned learning center in Mount Vernon. Next week, he said, the group will donate 100 winter coats through the Veterans Affairs hospital in the Bronx.
Ivette Ocasio, program management officer at the Bronx hospital's volunteer services office, said she was not familiar with the VSO, or aware of its plan to donate coats.
"Normally, our office would be processing that type of donation, '' she said.
Bittleman said the donation was being made to a hospital outpatient program that is not overseen by Ocasio and offered to provide an invoice for the coats.
The Veterans Support Organization was founded in 2001 by Richard Van Houten. A Brooklyn native, Van Houten said he served in the Army from 1983 to 1991 and worked as a salesman for Schwan's Ice Cream after leaving the service. He started the VSO after a back injury left him with extra time on his hands.
"It wasn't for the money. I didn't start this to make money, " said Van Houten, who now lives in Florida and draws a salary from the VSO. "As a matter of fact, for the first seven, eight years, I took very, very minimal from it. Very minimal. Because it wasn't for that. It was just to stay busy."
Substantial growth
VSO has grown substantially in recent years. The group has chapters in Florida, Rhode Island and Georgia, and moved into New York over the past year. It runs Veterans New Life Haven, a homeless shelter in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and will move into the 8, 500-square-foot space at 31 South St. in Mount Vernon. It also plans to expand into Tennessee and Texas.
"So it's growing, " Van Houten said. "It went from me and another guy to like 250 people that are actually with the group right now."
But the organization has drawn criticism, in part for its mode of fundraising. VSO enlists down-and-out residents to stand outside shopping centers and in shopping malls and take contributions. Van Houten said the workers are recruited from America Works Inc., a national multi-service agency with a regional office in New York City.
The collectors are dressed in military fatigues with the group's logo emblazoned on the back, although many are not veterans. They also get a cut. Van Houten said they get 25 percent to 30 percent of what they bring in, depending on what they raise.
VSO officials said the sidewalk collection duties are the foundation of what the organization sells as its "work program, " which purportedly provides sales, marketing and entrepreneurial training, said Bittleman, the VSO program coordinator.
"Let me tell you this much, " Bittleman said. "When we get them they're living in homeless shelters. And when they leave us they're living on their own and independent, and in the interim we're housing them and we're also feeding them and they're also working, which they weren't doing. And most of them transition into employment."
"So you want to call it raising more money, you can, " he said. "It definitely does that. But it pays for their ability to not be in a homeless shelter or on the streets under a bridge. And that's where most of them came from."
Van Houten said periodic checks on their activities, sealed collection containers and the use of "marked bills" are routinely used as controls against theft. He also argued that it's not necessary for all of the collectors to be veterans — all they need, he maintained, is a desire to help.
"This is one of the things that makes us different, " he said. "I don't believe you have to be a veteran to help veterans. It's just like cancer. To raise money for cancer, you don't have to have it."
He also said VSO is careful not to have the collectors wear regulation fatigues. For instance, he said, they wear baseball caps and not regulation flat-top hats.
"Those fatigues are for unity, " Van Houten said. "We do not wear rank on them. We've gone to a lawyer. You can buy them at Walmart. You can buy them at any Army and Navy. You can walk right in and buy them, and a lot of people do wear them."
'IT'S LIKE A CON''
Armonk resident Bob Romano, who has seen VSO members collecting cash in The Westchester mall, said the fatigues deceive people.
"I'm not a veteran, but seeing these guys really made me angry, " he said. "When you see guys in uniform, you feel a debt of gratitude for the people who put their lives on the line to protect us. So of course, you want to give something back to them. For these guys, who aren't even veterans, to be doing something like this. It's like a con."
Bittleman said the VSO is legally prohibited from hiring only veterans, but said about 90 percent of the New York collectors are former military. The fundraising duties, he said, help foster people skills and lead to more complex duties, such as "booking" a store for fundraising or even negotiating leases for the group.
The VSO houses more than a dozen veterans in the area, and has enlisted at least that many for it's regional work program, Bittleman said. He said the group also provides emergency funding for vets through America Works and local VA offices. He did not provide specific examples, citing privacy.
In all, the organization brought in more than $1 million in 2008, and more than $2.5 million this year, according to John Nacowicz, a Warwick, R.I., accountant who serves as VSO's national treasurer. The New York Attorney General's Office, which monitors and oversees charities, said VSO is current in its filings. No complaints or investigations are on file.
A review of VSO's tax-exempt filings with the Internal Revenue Service for 2007, the most recent year available, shows that the organization raised $1, 040, 984 nationwide that year and spent $951, 175. The expenses include $491, 614 in "program services" and $403, 229 in fundraising costs. Those costs are applied to expanding VSO's operations, something the group sees as providing services to veterans.
According to the records, $311, 656 — or roughly 31 percent — went to direct services. The document said the money went toward "new television for needy veterans, reading materials, and coffee program at the VA. Help for homeless Vets: clothing, food and transportation. VA patient emergency financial help." It does not state specifically where the money was spent.
Officers get $116, 265
The records note that $116, 265 went to "compensation of current officers" in 2007, including $53, 810 to Van Houten.
"I collected a very minimal salary for seven years of doing this, " Van Houten said. "Now I work seven days a week. I put in more time in a week than most people put in in three weeks."
Nacowicz, VSO's treasurer, said highlighting the 2007 numbers would be unfair to the group.
"The numbers, actually, if we went back and redid them more appropriately, that number would probably be a lot higher, " he said. "It's just because we were new back then and we didn't understand the process. Now we're a little more adept and we're getting larger and we've got these audited statements."
In recent years, the VSO has been commissioning independent audits of its books. According to Nacowicz, those audits show that nearly 70 percent of the money collected is going back into programs — well above the 50 percent threshold that Van Houten said he insists on.
According to Restivo Monacelli, the Providence, R.I., auditing firm, the VSO raised $1, 025, 794, and spent $688, 096 in the year ended Sept. 30, 2008. Among the listed "program services expenses, " $317, 788 went for "donations." The rest was listed as costs for subcontractors, automobile expenses and uniforms, which cost $7, 458.
"They don't seem kosher to me, and it makes me mad, '' said Marine Corps veteran John Preiss, vice commander of Yonkers-based Disabled American Veterans Chapter 16. "All of the money we raise goes to the guys — we've never kept a dime. I think if people want to make a donation to help veterans, they should make it to local groups."
