Bobby Charles Thompson, a prolific Republican donor who claimed to be a retired naval commander, was the public face of a Washington nonprofit called the United States Navy Veterans Association. But federal authorities soon discovered that everything about Thompson--including his name and his group's status as a legitimate fundraiser--was a lie.
From Washingtonian:
At the height of his powers, Bobby Thompson cut a different figure from the man arrested outside Moore's home. With a fake-looking dark pompadour and a bushy beard, he went by “Commander,” and his nonprofit raised money at astonishing rates. Founded in 2002, the Navy Veterans Association claimed to help needy vets and servicemembers. Its website, heavy on Stars and Stripes and animated GIFs, spoke in a voice tinged with post-9/11 belligerence. “We face new enemies,” it declared. “Now we need to wake up.”
The group outsourced fundraising to telemarketing firms. Their employees collected money from good Samaritans all over the country, who wrote checks of tens or hundreds of dollars to help those who served America. By 2009, the association had 41 state chapters, plus its DC headquarters. It boasted of “66,000+ voting members,” and disclosures filed with the government suggested that, over the seven years since its launch, total revenues were roughly $100 million.
Like the Navy Veterans, Commander Thompson himself channeled a rabid patriotism. “He was a zealot,” says Helen Mac Murray, a lawyer who worked with the nonprofit from 2007 to 2010. “There was no such thing as a telephone call that lasted less than an hour.”
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