Go Navy Tax Services seemed like a great option for sailors looking for help during tax season. Situated just outside the gates of Naval Base San Diego, one of the country’s biggest Navy bases, it was local, it was convenient, it was specifically focused on helping Navy members with their taxes — and best of all, it was free.
When sailors entered the doors of the Navy-flag adorned trailer where Go Navy Tax Services was based, they found what they came for: free tax preparation. But the accountants also pushed service members to open retirement accounts. For years, Paul Flanagan and his associates at Go Navy Tax Services convinced service members who came in for tax help to open various savings accounts, providing them with all the necessary forms. They just had to fill in their personal information and sign on the dotted line.
But the nearly 5,000 applications that sailors and Marines signed didn’t actually open retirement accounts. Instead, they bought unnecessary life insurance policies—without the sailors’ knowledge—and authorized withdrawals to pay for them from the sailors’ bank accounts. In turn, Flanagan and his co-conspirators earned more than $2 million in commissions on the “sales” over nearly a decade. The service members who had signed the forms lost a combined $4.8 million.
“Service members have given so much to our country,” Xavier Becerra, then the California attorney general, said in a statement after Flanagan and his associates were indicted on 69 counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, forgery, identity theft, and grand theft, among other things, in 2019. “They should not have to worry about being targeted and taken advantage of by malicious scammers.”
A woman who led a veteran service organization in Georgia has been charged with misrepresenting herself, state authorities said.
Gabrielle Beutler, 31, was the post commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 5897 in Lavonia, Georgia, when the local police flagged the "suspected criminal misconduct" for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), according to a news release from Wednesday, Aug. 17.
The GBI said they discovered that Beutler faked being a veteran, using fake IDs to buy Purple Heart license plates and forging military discharge documents, all of which got her the job at the VFW.
The woman was arrested at her job and charged with forgery, distributing false identification and misrepresentation of veteran status, according to investigators.
Contact information for Beutler's attorneys was not immediately available. But the VFW Department of Georgia told McClatchy News it is investigating the allegations.
"These egregious allegations are in no way representative of the other members of VFW Post 5897 or the Veterans of Foreign Wars Department of Georgia," a spokesperson said in a statement. "The men and women of our organization are proud of our service and remain committed to performing the mission of serving the veterans, military families, and our communities in the great state of Georgia."
Uh, "pro se" means, Trump's going it alone. https://t.co/YLRiFHNpDe
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) August 22, 2022
Quote by Raine:
Good Morning.
this thread is spectacular...Uh, "pro se" means, Trump's going it alone. https://t.co/YLRiFHNpDe
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) August 22, 2022
This sentence is a confession to a violation of the Espionage Act.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) August 22, 2022
Written by lawyers claiming to represent the former President, who they call the President. pic.twitter.com/pXTPzErmVW
Quote by Raine:Quote by Raine:
Good Morning.
this thread is spectacular...Uh, "pro se" means, Trump's going it alone. https://t.co/YLRiFHNpDe
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) August 22, 2022This sentence is a confession to a violation of the Espionage Act.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) August 22, 2022
Written by lawyers claiming to represent the former President, who they call the President. pic.twitter.com/pXTPzErmVW
One thing about Trump's document is that it's filed as a separate action without complying with most of the rules for a separate complaint, but styled as a motion, without following most of the rules for motions. To be fair there is no rule governing a Youtube comment.
— EnoughTreesHat (@Popehat) August 23, 2022
I thought Ron Desantis put out the cheesiest ad of the 2018 election cycle. He beat it this year. pic.twitter.com/VndYWqN52Q
— Ron Filipkowski