Donations Don't Match Claims By North Shore Eats Founder

BEVERLY, MA -- Corrected: An earlier version of this story said Beverly Police were investigating Greg Bates. Patch spoke with two people who said they had filed complaints with the department about Bates and were told that the department was conducting an investigation. On Friday morning Beverly Police Officer Michael Boccuzzi told Patch the department is not investigating Bates at this time.

The charity that the founder of North Shore Eats said he was donating money to said Thursday it has received $13,000 from him since 2016. But nearly $10,000 of that came from ticket sales for a fundraiser through a third-party website that Greg Bates, of Beverly, promoted on his popular North Shore Eats Facebook group, meaning he turned over about $3,000 to the Northeast Arc Autism Support Center from the fundraisers he claimed to be running by raffling off gift cards that had been donated by restaurants.

The $13,000 is far short of the total Bates has claimed to raise in posts on the Facebook group, which is a forum for people to discuss North Shore restaurants and exchange reviews. In posts to the group in September and November of last year and April of this year, Bates claimed to have made donations totaling $27,000. In a private Facebook messenger exchange, Bates claimed to donate between $100,000 and $200,000 annually Northeast Arc.

The charity has started asking donors to send donations directly to Northeast Arc. Bates has been under fire after reports that he solicited donations from restaurants in exchange for favorable reviews on the Facebook group he runs. Patch has reached out to Bates for comment on the donations and will update this story if he responds.

The discrepancy in actual donations and the amounts Bates says he gave to the nonprofit suggest he was making false claims when he said 100% of the money from his fundraisers to Northeast Arc. Several restaurant owners have claimed Bates would ask for two gift cards when he solicited donations: one purportedly for his fundraisers and one that he kept for himself. Businesses that refused claim they were banned from posting on the group and that Bates badmouthed them to potential customers.

Previously on Patch:

• Peabody Woman Recounts Shakedown By North Shore Eats Founder
• Beverly Man Accused Of Pay-For-Play Restaurant Reviews

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).