Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20120713 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 July 13, 2012



anything as dramatic as this. you know, we've become real attached to the fact that military personnel love their animals, and we want to do everything we can to keep them together. >> sounds great. it's a noble thing to do, right? if, in fact, that is what terry crisp is doing. instead, keeping them honest tonight, cnn's drew griffin has discovered only a slim fraction of the $26 million that woman raised could even possibly have gone towards rescuing dogs. and as you'll see, the charity watchdog group has doubts how that slim fraction was spent. as they put it, the numbers don't seem to add up. the appeal though, reuniting dogs and troops, is powerful. just as it was 6 1/2 years ago after hurricane katrina when crisp was running an organization called noah's wish. the appeal then was to reunite pets and survivors. >> terry crisp joins me. she is in sacramento, california. good to see you. >> good to see you, anderson, too. >> and you brought an animal with you? >> this is tabasco. he's one of the survivors of hurricane katrina. he was found on the washing machine of a house that was flooded. he, his sister and another dog all survived. >> turns out, i didn't know it at the time, there were serious questions about noah's wish and a legal settlement with the state of california. we've been reporting on this for weeks now as part of a continuing investigation into the people asking you for money. to charities. and what they do with the money they raise. one thing we have not been able to do is confront terry crisp. that is, until tonight. here's drew griffin. >> reporter: it is the televised appeal on cnn's hln -- >> our salute to the troops today is actually live in the studio. >> reporter: that so many of you found outrageous. >> sitting right beside nugget is terry with the spca and ivy's down at my feet. >> reporter: march of 2011. terry crisp with spca international was telling our viewers ivy and nugget -- >> look at that face! >> reporter: -- were two bomb-sniffing dogs that had worked for a u.s. contractor in iraq and had been essentially abandoned by the company. she rescued them and was trying to find them homes. along for the visit was an unwitting retired dog handler. hln anchor robin meade understandably couldn't believe the story. >> so how is it that they fall through thcracks and get stranded there? that's unthinkable to me. >> it is unthinkable. that's why spca international is making sure these dogs don't get forgotten. that they get brought home. >> reporter: it turns out ivy and nugget were not abandoned. they were donated. taken from their adoptive homes in iraq, a military contractor tells cnn. after terry crisp asked for them. the military contractor, reed security, told cnn they had no idea crisp would use ivy and nugget as fund-raising tools in the united states. for weeks, cnn has been trying to track down crisp. first we were told by her spokesperson she was unavailable. this week, we drove to crisp's rural home down this dirt road in the foothills of california's sierra nevada and found crisp driving straight towards us. miss crisp, it's drew griffin with cnn. we would sure like to talk to you. terry crisp, dog in hand, got out of her car and walked right up to our camera and acted like she was about to answer our questions. >> this is not the place to do an interview. >> reporter: well, what is the place to do an interview? we've been trying to get an interview with you for a long, long time. specifically to ask you about "operation baghdad pups." >> yeah, stephanie scott, our director of communications, has communicated with you directly -- >> reporter: yeah, i understand that, but can you tell us why you came on cnn and basically lied to our viewers about ivy and nugget? >> you need to talk to stephanie -- >> reporter: i think you need to talk to our viewers and explain to us what "operation baghdad pups" is all about because it appears to be a fund-raising effort for your lifestyle and quadriga art, quite frankly. >> like i said, again, you need to contact stephanie. all our interviews are coordinated through her. we've offered to do them with you. >> reporter: you've been on our air, ma'am. you told our viewers ivy and nugget were abandoned military contract dogs, which we confirmed they were not. basically lying to our viewers. i know you've got an outpouring of support and likely money after that appearance. our viewers feel like they -- and so do we. cnn feels like we were lied to. do you have any explanation for how that happened? >> this, like i said, is not the time and place. we're happy to talk to you. everything has to be coordinated through our director of communications. >> reporter: crisp is part of spca international. a group raising millions of dollars with its sympathetic fund-raising campaign called baghdad pups. according to these irs tax filings, spca international has taken in more than $26 million in donations over the past three years. $23 million of that money has gone right into the coffers of the direct mail company quadriga art, not towards rescuing military dogs. what has it done with the rest of theemaining $3 million? spca international says it rescued about 447 soldiers' pets from iraq and afghanistan. but bob ottenhof, the president of the charity watchdog group guide star, says the numbers just don't seem to add up. >> i can't understand how to connect the dots between how much money is spent on fund-raising to how much money is spent on programming and what the sources of those revenues are. and i also can't really measure the impact of this organization. what difference are they really making? >> reporter: and this isn't the first time terry crisp has been at the center of a questionable charitable fund-raising drive involving animals. in 2005, after hurricane katrina, she showed up on tv stations and networks, including cnn, claiming to be rescuing stranded animals as part of her animal rescue charity called noah's wish. this is a former bookkeeper for noah's wish who wants to conceal her identity unrelated to her work at the charity. she says she watched soon after katrina as the donations came pouring in. >> there was cash. there were checks. there were cashier's checks. there were letters, heartbreaking letters, from kids, that instead of having birthday parties, they wanted all the money to go to noah's wish to help those poor little animals. on a given day we would have, ohmy gosh, easily, $20,000. >> wow. >> yeah. just in checks. >> reporter: and, she says, suddenly terry crisp changed. hiring her daughter and acting as if the money was hers to keep. >> they did. they did. terry at one time said that i've worked so hard for so many years doing animal rescue. i'm entitled to this money. >> reporter: salaries? >> yes. six-digit salaries. >> reporter: for mom and daughter? >> for mom and daughter. >> reporter: the bookkeeper and others went to california's attorney general, which investigated. the noah's wish organization signed a settlement agreement with the state, agreeing to forfeit $4 million. and terry crisp was banned from being an officer or director of any charity for five years. let me ask you about noah's wish which you're no longer with -- >> i can't talk about that either. >> reporter: terry crisp politely refused to talk about anything. when you were the director of noah's wish, did you pay yourself a six-figure salary, along with your daughter? >> i'm not going to talk about that. >> reporter: you did, didn't you? >> i didn't pay -- i didn't set up my salary. it was done by the board of directors. >> reporter: crisp maintains she is now just an employee of spca international, not a director, and by not talking, she's just following orders. i'll give you one more opportunity to explain why you came on cnn and basically lied about those two quote/unquote military contract dogs. >> well, like i said, we would be happy to do an interview, but we have procedures in place and everything has to go through stephanie, and we have been in communication with you. we've provided you with lots of information, and you've taken a lot of that information and not reported it correctly. >> reporter: now's your chance, ma'am. >> i would love to but i said, you know, i'm an employee -- >> reporter: how much do you make? >> not a lot for what i do. >> reporter: can you give me a figure? >> no. i'm be going to reveal that. i can't answer any of your questions right now. believe me, i would love to. >> it's amazing. you'd think if she had, as she says, nothing to hide that she'd take advantage of you being there and tell you the good things that she's done and what's happened to all those millions of dollars. >> she's had plenty of time to think about it, anderson. we have been trying to get a sit-down interview with terri crisp for weeks and weeks, working with that communications director she mentioned. but we never got a clear answer when we could talk to terri crisp which is why we drove up to her home trying to get some kind of comment. that communications director, by the way, anderson, called us right after and said, hey, now that you've done this, the odds are you're never going to get an interview with terri crisp. >> i have my doubts whether she ever planned to talk to you, regardless. could terri crisp be in trouble with the state of california? >> you know, she may be. the attorney general's office here in california, we know, is actively reviewing that settlement agreement that was signed by noah's wish. we don't have the details of how far that review has gone. there may be some trouble down the road for terri crisp. we'll just have to stand by and let you know what happens when the a.g.'s office releases its report. >> it's amazing stuff. there's also breaking news on another story drew has been reporting on. it involves toyota. all those cases of sudden unintended acceleration. toyota cars and trucks without explanation surging ahead, out of the driver's control. what's going on with that, drew? >> well, you know, toyota has been relying on that government agency's report. the national highway traffic safety administration's report, which basically toyota says cleared it of any electronic problems with its unintended acceleration in its vehicles. today, the ranking member, the republican ranking member of the judiciary committee, senator charles grassley, says that's not good enough. he's asking nhtsa, that agency, to relook at all the data and reinvestigate sudden acceleration. here's why, anderson. he says it was too narrow in scope, and the senator also says he has whistle-blowers coming forward to him, saying that that nhtsa investigation may have been flawed. that's senator grassley's words. he wants to take another look at it. there have been 9,600 or so reported cases of this. you know, last march, we reported on your show, anderson, about an internal testing document we got out of toyota, which seemed to indicate to us and to a lot of electrical engineers we talked to that they did find electrical sudden unintended acceleration in one of its prototype vehicles. toyota says that is not the case. the key thing is, we don't have any evidence that test was part of the government's review. we'll see what happens. senator grassley asking for a whole other investigation into unintended acceleration with toyota vehicles. >> appreciate the update. we received a statement from a toyota spokesman. there's no problem with the electronic throttle control systems in toyota vehicles. and all the scientific evidence confirms it. you can read the rest of toyota's statement on our website. ac360.com. let us know what you think. we're on facebook. follow me on twitter. @andersoncooper. up next -- raw politics. mitt romney says he left bain capital in 1999 to run the utah olympics. now s.e.c. filings list him as chairman and ceo for years after that. we'll tell you why it could impact the election. 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[ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. raw politics now. revelations casting doubt on a key claim by the romney campaign and the candidate himself leading the obama campaign to suggest mr. romney may have committed a crime. heated stuff. here's what it's all about. mr. romney has of course spent the past few months trying to make sure the obama campaign does not define the narrative of his career in the private sector. basically the obama campaign wants to paint romney as the greedy out of touch rich guy whose company bain capital closed companies, killed jobs to make a quick buck. that's what they want. mr. romney said many of the allegations don't count because he'd already left the firm. >> well, the most recent attacks are really off target. and i think they know that. they said, oh, gosh, governor romney at bain capital closed down a steel factory. but their problem of course is that the steel factory closed down two years after i left bain capital. i was no longer there. so that's hardly something which is on my watch. >> the key development in today's story is the year, 1999. that's when mr. romney says he left bain to run the winter olympics in salt lake city. a number of news outlets uncovered filings with the securities and exchange commission which show him still on the corporate books through 2001. they list mitt romney as ceo, president and managing director of bain capital. you can take a look right there. the question of course is did mr. romney exercise an active role at the time? was he actually making management decisions? or was this just some kind of clerical artifact of his leaving so suddenly? the romney campaign telling us, quote, the article is not accurate. as bain capital has said. as governor romney has said and has been confirmed multiple times. governor romney left bain capital in february of 1999 to run the olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point. the obama campaign on the other hand is playing this up. spokeswoman stephanie cutter telling us, quote, this puts him at the center of responsibility for troubling investments involving outsourcing and bankruptcies. it also raises serious questions about why he misrepresented date of his departure. and whether he is concealing his tax returns because there's still more about this period and ypd that he doesn't want people to know. campaign legal counsel bob bauer going even further. he says the question of the truth in s.e.c. filings would trigger an investigation, as well as civil violations of the law. romney campaign is demanding an apology from president obama for that. let's get some perspective. let's step back a little bit. let's get some perspective from chief national correspondent john king and senior political analyst david gergen. when the romney campaign says he had nothing to do with the company post-1999, is there any reason to doubt that's true? what benefit possibly would they get from not being fully accurate about his dealings there? >> when you show those s.e.c. filings, there's the reason to doubt it. they're going to have to explain that away. that's a government document. it is filed with the united states government. here's howhey explain it. they say he left in february 1999. that it took almost two years to have the new management team put in place. they're required by law until that new team is in place to list romney as the top guy. is there evidence he had a hands-on role? no. you heard what governor romney said. "the washington post," factcheck.org, our partners at "fortune" magazine. i today have spoke or communicated by e-mail with four current or former bain officials. three of the four are democrats. two of them are active obama supporters in campaign 2012. they were all there at the time. they say romney left in a hurry in 1999 to take over the olympics and he was never involved after that to their knowledge. not at any meetings, not sign anything documents. not involved in any deals. three of these four democrat, they say what the obama campaign is saying isn't true. >> so, david, is this an overreach, overreaction by the obama campaign trying to fit into the narrative they've been running with now over the last uple of days? >> it certainly may well be. i talked today to two of the senior leaders of bain capital, people i've known for a long time. they said exactly what john king just reported. that when the request came in from the olympics, for him to come out there, he said, guys, you know, i don't really want to go but i think we must. he left within 5 to 10 days. it was a real hurry. a lot of the documents that pertain to a number of entities took a while to unwind. they were in no hurry because they didn't think there was anything like this ever coming. but the critical thing is, what they said to a person, is after february 1999, he made no calls on behalf of bain capital. he made no hiring decisions. he made no investment decisions. they suggested another way to check this would be to talk to people who invested in the next round of fund-raising. money raising for bain capital. about whether they thought he was running things. they said, if you check with him, you'll find they thought he had left. now, i should tell you, anderson, that i've had not only personal relationships, i started out with bain capital, folks, partners, here in washington. i've had financial dealings with them. i've given a couple of paid speeches for them. i also was part of a company that was sold to bain capital. i was on the board of a company that sold bain capital. we thought they did a terrific job. i did realize some financial gain from that. having said all that, knowing what i know about the bain capital partnership, how i think they are people of real integrity. they're very well regarded in boston. i think the romney people, the burden is on the obama people to prove this. factcheck.org today, which is a respected organization, said they stood by their reporting. that romney had no active engagement with bain capital after february 1999. i would point out that that report by factcheck.org was co-written by brooks jackson who used to be a very, very good investigative reporter for cnn. >> yeah. both of

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