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July 31, 2008

Spending by Sheriffs' Charity Comes Under Fire

Officials at the American Deputy Sheriffs Association benefited from at least $400,000 in payments over a period of four years — more than the group spent on death benefits and bulletproof vests for members, with the money going for such perks as dinners at the restaurant Hooters and golf tournaments for board members, according to a report filed in an Ohio court in July and recounted in The Orange County Register, in Santa Ana, Calif.

The group, known as ADSA, was ordered to stop raising money earlier this year by a court-appointed receiver, Jeffrey Lewis, a lawyer in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Lewis is preparing to distribute the organization’s remaining money, and Judge John Bessey said he may dissolve the organization.

The sheriffs’ association, one of several charities assembled by Mitch Gold, a telemarketer who eventually served six years in prison for mail fraud, raised $38.7-million from 1999 through 2007. Regulators in 14 states banned, restricted, or fined the group before Ohio seized control of the organization in August 2004.

Larry Smith, the charity’s founder, and Tom Buchman, its internal auditor, defended the group’s spending. Mr. Buchman said that board members conducted work-related discussions on the golf course and that Hooters was an inexpensive dining option for large groups of charity officials.

Mr. Smith said he and the other employees were all working in good faith: “We thought we could make it a viable organization. But we couldn’t play that game. The only people who made money from ADSA were the lawyers and fund raisers.”

Thursday July 31, 2008 | Permalink

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