Orange County Veterans' Organization Scammed Public: AG

ORANGE COUNTY, NY — A veterans’ charity has been ordered to dissolve and must pay back donations people made for raffle tickets for a raffle that was never held. State Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood said Tuesday that an agreement had been reached with the Wounded Warriors Foundation of Orange County Inc. for illegally collecting thousands of dollars in raffle tickets without ever conducting a raffle.

Under the terms of the agreement, Wounded Warriors Foundation of Orange County must immediately dissolve and pay $4,200 in restitution to the consumers it defrauded.

“New Yorkers should be confident that their charitable donations are going to legitimate organizations that will use these funds to carry out the mission they advertise,” Underwood said.

“Our office will hold accountable organizations that break the law and take advantage of the public’s generosity,” she said.

The organization, which is not affiliated with the national Wounded Warrior Project, sold raffle tickets at $50 per ticket to the public — totaling $4,200 — and said the raffle’s grand prize was a new 2016 Ford Focus.

It also claimed that all proceeds would go toward purchasing mobility and lift equipment for veterans who had suffered severe injuries while serving in the armed forces.

The organization never conducted a raffle, Underwood said.

Upon receiving complaints from consumers who had purchased raffle tickets, the attorney general’s office launched an investigation into the organization and its founder Sean B. McCarthy.

The investigation revealed that, despite holding itself out as a charitable organization supporting wounded veterans and soliciting donations from the public, the organization was not a legitimate nonprofit corporation.

The agreement calls for the organization to either dissolve immediately or properly register as a nonprofit corporation with the attorney general’s office.

McCarthy paid $4,200 in victim restitution and must also pay $250 in civil penalties and a $5,000 bond.

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