The director of a national charity for veterans has gone into hiding after defying a congressional subpoena.
Roger Chapin, head of the California-based charity, Help Hospitalized Veterans, refused to appear today before a congressional hearing chaired by Congressman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who is investigating how the charity's money was spent. Waxman said Chapin had evaded attempts by U.S. marshals to find him for the past week to serve a warrant to compel Chapin to answer questions before Congress about his charity, which raised more than $98 million last year.
"There have been serious allegations against Mr. Chapin, including allegations that he is paying exorbitant salaries to himself and his wife, using donations to pay for questionable expenses, such as new condos, shifting funds among his various groups to skew reporting numbers and concealing millions of dollars in payments to for-profit fundraising corporations," Waxman said.
Help Hospitalized Veterans was one of more than a dozen charities for veterans rated "F" by a leading charity watchdog group, the American Institute of Philanthropy. At today's hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Waxman criticized these charities for "intolerable fraud" and "a sickening betrayal of our most fundamental values." |