Coconutm Ms News Today

Keeping them honest. a huge historic fined levy in a charity bond fraud case and busted open by cnn. the disabled veterans national foundation claimed to help disabled veterans but it donated thousands of coconut m&ms instead giving something genuine. the money is going into fund-raisers instead of helping vets. the new york attorney general says enough is enough and its all because of reporting from cnn and our investigative correspondent drew griffin. >> reporter: one of the largest settlement...

It made called gifts in kind like those coconut m&ms were useless to veterans. >> the abuses here really span the whole gamut of abuses you can see in a charitable organization and why this is such an interesting case because they were falsifying the value of the gifts in kind. they were sending things that no disabled veteran needed like m&ms and chefs hats. >> reporter: as a result of the settlement the dvmf founding board members including hits founder priscilla wilcox is being removed from t...

To control the flow of funds. it had total control and discretion of the funds going in. >> out of a total of $116 million raised by the veterans charity over the years, 104 million of it, went to the direct mail fund-raiser according to new york state. and most of the donations that it made called gifts in kind like those coconut m&ms were useless to veterans. >> the abuses here really span the whole gamut of abuses that you could see in a charitable organization, thats why this is such an inte...

>> nobodys agreed. so here is the question, its $64 million raised over three years. >> thank you so much. >> and none of the money has gone to any veterans, maam? >> and here again, drew is at a small veterans shelter in birmingham, alabama, where some of the donations turned out to be not money or anything that charity actually needed, but candy. >> the great thing they sent us was 11,520 bags of coconut m&ms. >> and at each step along the way, the private furnished raiser denied anything was ...

Small veterans shelter in birmingham, alabama, where some of the donations turned out to be not money or anything that charity actually needed, but candy. >> the great thing they sent us was 11,520 bags of coconut m&ms. >> and at each step along the way, the private fund raiser denied anything was wrong, that the way they took in donations and kept almost every single dime of it was just fine. heres mark shallhoff reading a prepared statement. >> this is not making millions off the back of veter...