While that was a noble cause, nothing about the U.S. Navy Veterans Association was what it seemed.
Buoyed by the eccentric Thompson, the association thrived on more than $20 million in revenue.
Testerman knew there was a secret hiding behind Thompsons behavior and dug in.
Little did Testerman know how deep the lies and secrets of the charity and Thompson went.
The U.S. Navy Veterans Association wasnt sending money to veterans;it was an elaborate scam.
For instance, if you are looking for a job you are more vulnerable to a work-at-home scam.
Veterans Charity Scam
[00:00:00] Will Johnson: This week on AARP - The Perfect Scam.
[00:00:03] I’ve never seen anybody hide in plain sight like this.
[00:00:23] Will Johnson: Welcome back to AARP - The Perfect Scam.
[00:00:31] Frank Abagnale: Great to be with you, Will.
This was a veteran’s charity scam that was fairly big news in parts of the country.
[00:00:44] Will Johnson: A lot of people might not have ever heard about it.
I understand you, you have some familiarity with, with Bobby Thompson.
Wheat are they doing with the money?
[00:01:52] Will Johnson: Some scams are successful because they strike fear into people.
I mean they, they tug at the heart.
[00:02:15] Will Johnson: So you mentioned the mail.
[00:02:23] Frank Abagnale: Telephone call, exactly.
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[00:02:34] Will Johnson: This story begins with a $500 check.
It ends with over $100 million dollars stolen, missing, and possibly gone forever.
It begins with a newspaper reporter and a hunch.
It takes us to Florida, to Ohio, to Oregon, and back to Ohio.
How much to believe and what to believe is up to you.
[00:03:14] Jeff Testerman: I was mainly a government and courts uh kind of person.
Anyone could get a call from the organization asking for money.
The duplex he lived in was uh, not impressive, shall we say.
I would call it falling down maybe or dilapidated.
[00:05:00] Will Johnson: Testerman pulls up unannounced and finds Capt.
Bobby Thompson right away.
I went up and introduced myself.
He knew my reputation.
He knew who I was.
[00:05:50] Jeff Testerman: Absolutely.
I had no reason to suspect anything, uh about him.
As I said, I, I knew nothing about the group.
[00:06:28] Will Johnson: Interesting.
And so you, you must be surprised as this is all happening.
Uh, including questions about his background.
He said, well I’m a, I’m uh Bobby Thompson.
I’m a U.S. Navy Reserve uh Lieutenant Commander, Retired.
Well that was, that was a little more information than I was asking for.
[00:07:49] Will Johnson: What does he mean by that, four different places?
Bobby Thompson is doing just that.
And the conversation isn’t getting any more cordial.
So um, I didn’t hang around too long.
[00:08:33] Will Johnson: Testerman gets back in his car and heads back to the office.
If anyone could dig into Thompson’s past, Testerman knew Martin could.
They both started pouring through the USNVA’s website, over 2500 pages long trying to get some information.
But the story just gets stranger.
A search for other board members comes up empty.
They do have an address, an office on M Street in Washington DC.
It was a rented mailbox.
[00:10:26] Will Johnson: Holy cow.
[00:10:27] Jeff Testerman: We knew we had something.
We were just positive we had something.
It all sounded quite uh it sounded like they were doing good things.
[00:12:08] Helen MacMurray: Absolutely.
I am the daughter of a Navy veteran.
What, what were they doing as far as you knew?
Bobby Thompson, and by all accounts, he was a colorful character.
He had his photo taken with senators, and even the President George W. Bush.
And he was an active contributor to the Republican Party.
[00:14:09] Helen MacMurray: Every conversation with him was like a Supreme Court argument.
But to be honest with you, I mean uh they were interesting discussions too about the 1st Amendment.
[00:14:44] Helen MacMurray: Um, to some degree.
I mean sometimes they could come at 8 or 9 o’clock at night, then not so much.
Was he a friendly guy?
[00:15:03] Helen MacMurray: I, I thought he was a lawyer wannabe.
[00:15:13] Will Johnson: We watch a lot of Law & Order or something on TV.
[00:15:15] Helen MacMurray: Exactly.
Exactly, yeah, yeah, so that’s kind of really what I thought he was.
[00:15:19] Will Johnson: So as Helen MacMurray explains, she was just doing her job.
[00:15:38] Will Johnson: So Testerman has enough red flags to keep his investigation going.
[00:16:01] Helen MacMurray: Years.
[00:16:02] Will Johnson: Years before you met him in person.
[00:16:03] Helen MacMurray: Yes.
[00:16:04] Will Johnson: Okay.
[00:16:04] Helen MacMurray: In fact, it was an accident that I met him in person.
[00:16:41] Helen MacMurray: No idea.
I had no idea, and plus, he looked bizarre.
Um, he had this huge uh unruly head um, of black, jet black hair.
[00:17:09] Will Johnson: Back in Florida, Testerman isn’t giving up.
The story’s too fishy.
Too many red flags.
So, he’s requesting tax records from the IRS and gradually they start trickling in.
They are bringing in millions of dollars.
For every dollar they raised, they keep 85 cents.
And…
[00:17:43] Will Johnson: That’s a lot.
[00:18:10] Will Johnson: Well who would hire somebody who’s keeping that much?
Uh, a million dollars is a million dollars, right?
Uh, even if your telemarketers uh keep five.
For Testerman, the plot’s getting thicker, and things weren’t getting any easier for Helen MacMurray.
He claimed that they had been in a station wagon in Connecticut that was flooded.
[00:19:41] Helen MacMurray: There were uh quite a few things that were concerning.
Um, so we kind of tried to use it as a learning opportunity.
[00:20:33] Will Johnson: And, and what was his attitude?
I mean, so you’re finding mustache wax, hair dye, beer, uh frozen dinners.
I feel like that would have been an awkward conversation to have.
I mean he just, he was right.
He was 100 percent right and we couldn’t tell him otherwise.
[00:21:33] Will Johnson: Correct me if I’m wrong.
It was a great smell of alcohol.
His file on Thompson is growing, but he wants something else.
[00:22:45] Bush: In 1954, President Eisenhower issued the first Presidential Veterans Day Proclamation.
[00:23:21] Jeff Testerman: And this, this guy is standing with the President.
What are we missing here?
[00:23:26] Will Johnson: What’s going on?
And we said, well, let’s, let’s dig some more.
We found a few others that were vacant lots.
[00:25:00] Will Johnson: And how, how long was the article?
[00:25:16] Will Johnson: Helen MacMurray’s life’s still not getting any easier.
Surprisingly the IRS had pretty much given the association a clean bill of health after the audit.
[00:25:33] Will Johnson: And so you came out of the meeting with auditors.
How are you feeling at this point about uh Bobby Thompson and what’s going on?
[00:26:08] Helen MacMurray: Uh, absolutely, absolutely.
[00:26:13] Helen MacMurray: He became increasingly um, nuts.
[00:26:34] Will Johnson: And so what happened?
You, at some point did you go to the authorities?
[00:26:38] Helen MacMurray: I did.
At any rate, he told Helen she was the one with the records and could help her out.
So that was enough for me.
I’m like, this is indicative of criminal activity.
And I literally drove across the street to the Florida Attorney General’s Office who called the FBI.
[00:28:34] Will Johnson: And what happened from there?
Did they get right, did they get involved right away?
[00:28:44] Will Johnson: Right, right, right.
[00:28:47] Helen MacMurray: It was pretty much that, you know.
[00:28:48] Will Johnson: It must have felt like guilt by association at this point.
[00:28:50] Helen MacMurray: It was, it was nerve-wracking.
[00:29:42] Jeff Testerman: Thompson disappeared in the middle of the night.
So we know that uh Bobby Thompson is in the wind, as they say.
They do say that, right, at the FBI?
Or do I watch too many TV shows?
[00:30:04] Frank Abagnale: Disappeared.
No, it’s disappeared.
[00:30:07] Will Johnson: Oh, they don’t even use that anymore, okay.
We’ll hear more about it next week.
In the meantime, does any of it shock you?
That money adds up to a great deal of money.
[00:31:24] Frank Abagnale: Two ways.
First of all, there is, of course, the Fraud Watch web connection.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For The Perfect Scam, I’m Will Johnson.
