Please Read:
Understand that Doug and ARTI have the greatest respect and admiration for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Organizations , around the world and feel the same about the International Red Cross. The American Red Cross is a completely different story. Read below and know why ARTI condemns the American Red Cross.
Doug Copp and ARTI have worked with the Red Cross and Red Crescent many times and at many disasters; since 1985. Doug has
been a member of the Mexican Red Cross since 1987. The Costa Rican Red Cross helped to give a parade for Doug , in
appreciation for his work at a giant Landslide in La Bomba. When in San Jose Doug trained the Costa Rican Red Cross and stayed at the home of the Red Cross Secretary General for a week. Doug has video of a Costa Rican Red Cross Official being interviewed on TV. When the Official is asked: "How can the Costa Rican Red Cross possibly complete the work at this giant Landslide when the British and Swiss Rescue Teams had left" , (refusing to work on the site because it was impossible and too dangerous). The Red Cross responded by stating: " because of rescue engineer Doug Copp". At this point, the camera panned over to the landslide and zoomed in on Doug, leading the rescue.
Doug has delivered medical supplies and incalculable truckloads of wheel chairs and crutches to Red Cross agencies in many cities in Mexico. Doug has trained the Red Cross in Ilo, Peru and dozens of other places throughout Latin America. Below, you will see some of the many letters of thanks from different Directors of the Red Cross, directed to Doug and ARTI. When the Mexican Red Cross asked Doug to request the American Red Cross to help them with expired medical goods and used equipment. The American Red Cross refused. So Doug and ARTI did the work. We helped the Mexican Red Cross when the American Red Cross refused.
At the World Trade Center the American Red Cross went nowhere near Ground Zero. There was no money to be raised at Ground
Zero. There were no TV cameras. ARTI crawled below the rubble while the American Red Cross collected 6 billion dollars in
extra cash beyond their usual multi billion dollar collection of donations. They still have most of that cash.
We have seen Mayor Art Agnos sue the American Red Cross who collected 57 million dollars to help the victims of the San
Francisco Earthquake only to spend $100,000 and try to 'get away' with the rest. Mayor Art Agnos sued them. ARC settled out
of court and spent the money on the victims. See the San Francisco Chronicle front page articles below.
Governor Jesse Ventura did the same thing when ARC tried to 'get away with' money raised to help Minnesota flood victims.
ARC has done this repeatedly. Remember all the media coverage about the ARC keeping the World Trade Center billions? Well
they kept the money.
Rocky Lopes, ARC Disaster Manager at he ARC National Headquarters (The San Francisco Chronicle refers to their huge marble
building as the 'Marble Palace') has sent out anti ARTI documents throughout the world, as far as Romania describing ARTI as
"only existing in the mind of Doug Copp". ARC continues to support duck and cover and to violently oppose the triangle of
life because their concern for the 6 billion dollars they raise every year is more important to them than the 200,000
victims who die every year from 'duck and cover'. They do not want their expertise questioned. Doug challenged ARC, in
writing, to produce a single picture of one of their 70,000 paid employees inside of a collapsed building and doug would pay
that person $1,000. They cannot produce a single picture because not one of them has ever crawled inside of a collapsed
building. The situation is the same as it was at the World Trade Center. ARTI members risk their lives crawling in the
rubble and ARC collects money to put in the bank.
A letter from the President of Safeway is below. I informed him of the ARC keeping the WTC money; including the millions
that Safeway employees donated. He was not happy. The worst scandal of all was that 3M Corporation donated $750,000.00 of
respirators to ARC for the World Trade Center. 4 thousand rescuers have respiratory illnesses because ARC refused to give
rescuers these respirators. Doug developed 5 different respiratory diseases because he could not replace his used up
respirator. This is a matter of medical records from some of the 25 Doctors and Medical Specialists who have treated Doug.
For 2 years Doug could only walk for 6 to 12 feet before starting to hyperventilate from lack of air. Thank you ARC.
Quotes from the CBS website:
...
"There's the fundraiser in Louisiana caught padding her own bank account with donations, the manager in Pennsylvania who embezzled to support her crack cocaine habit and the executive in Maryland who forged signatures on purchase orders meant for disaster victims, to name a few.
But the biggest criminal scandal inside the Red Cross surfaced in New Jersey last year. And though it's been kept off the front pages, it ranks among the biggest charity frauds ever.
At the center of the scandal is Joseph Lecowitch, chief executive of the Hudson County Chapter, and his bookkeeper Catalina Escoto.
Escoto allegedly gave herself at least $75,000 in bonuses. All told, prosecutors say the duo stole well over $1 million in Red Cross funds, squandering it on gambling and each other. Escoto pleaded not guilty. Lecowitch died after he was indicted."
- * Red Cross convicted of Fraud & Embezzlement * 4/7/2005
Associated Press.
Red Cross Director used donations for 911 victims for personal use. sentenced... see original article ,
Article
- American Red Cross agrees - Quake money will stay here,
clipping
- American Red Cross - mission in California,
clipping
- Oakland VS American Red Cross on Quake Aid,
clipping
- Red Cross: Sept 11 Fund Stirred Debate,
clipping
- Victims of Hugo echo S.F.: Red Cross a Disaster,
clipping
- Red Cross Chief Quits Amid Policy Disputes,
clipping
- Red Cross Sued Over Layoffs,
Article
- National Red Cross removes board of San Diego chapter,
Article
- American Red Cross Still Quaking,
Clipping
- CBS News reports Red Cross Theft,
CBS NEWS TV
- Toronto Star tainted Blood,
article
- San Francisco Examiner,
report from Mayor
- Daily Insight Magazine,
Red Cross theft
- more,
more
- fraud,
Red Cross theft
The Red Cross in the Cross Hairs?
Posted on Oct. 12, 2001
By Kelly Patricia O Meara
In a time of national tragedy the true spirit of America shines through, and nowhere is this more evident than in the outpouring of extraordinary amounts of money for the survivors and families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. To date, nearly $800 million has been donated to various funds and charitable organizations. And the flood continues as every day it seems some new fund is created. While it now appears that donations are likely to go well over the $1 billion mark by the end of October, issues are being raised about how much of that will make it to those for whom this outpouring was intended.
Who or what is responsible for making sure this money gets to the intended recipients? Will it go to current victims and their families or will some go into larger portfolios for future crises? And how much of the collected funds will cover administrative expenses and fund raising or mailing-list prospecting?
To try to answer these questions Insight has been looking at what happened to the huge sums collected in the aftermath of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. While the families interviewed were reluctant to discuss the level of support provided them by charitable organizations, this magazine discovered a different picture than was (and is) being publicly portrayed.
For instance, Insight has learned that letters of condolence and donations sent through the U.S. Postal Service and deemed “undeliverable” often are turned over to charitable organizations involved in disaster relief. Sometimes mail would be addressed in care of a charity or fund. A case in point: the American Red Cross. The Postal Service received thousands of cards, letters and gift packages that were addressed, for example, to “the woman who lost two kids,” the “rescue dogs” or the “family who lost the little boy.” Both the Postal Service and the Red Cross have confirmed that within weeks of the bombings most of this mail was forwarded through the postal system to the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Red Cross where it was opened and read by volunteers. When possible, letters and packages were forwarded to the intended families.
Mike Ellis, the postal inspector in Oklahoma City at the time of the bombing, tells Insight: “These procedures will change post office to post office depending on the situation. There is no set policy. The Postal Service sat down with the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the governor’s and mayor’s offices, and it was decided the post office would deliver it if it was addressed to specific places and people and the Red Cross would take any undeliverable mail.”
“The Red Cross,” continues Ellis, “had volunteers who would open the mail, and if there were donations in the envelopes they would go into a general fund that the Red Cross had set up. The general fund was distributed to the victims at the time.” Three of four families directly affected by the bombing who spoke with Insight about the mail-delivery system acknowledged that all of the mail they received from the American Red Cross had been opened. More notable, however, is what these families reported about the surprising change in their mail deliveries after the American Red Cross took over for the Postal Service.
“The first days after the bombing,” says one family member, “people from all over the country were sending checks in lieu of flowers and we were getting a lot of checks and cash every day — hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. Then the Red Cross went down to the post office and made arrangements to collect the mail and they would deliver it to us in bulk. All the mail had been opened, and from that point on there never was a dime, even in letters that said money was enclosed.”
A member of another family recalls a similar experience: “We got this big box from the American Red Cross with more than 100 letters and each one of them had been opened. People told us that there was money in the envelopes, but we never got it. We heard that volunteers were opening the mail and putting the letters in one pile and the money in another. We complained to the Red Cross that it was mail fraud to open our mail. The letters, after all, were addressed to our family. We even went to local television stations asking them to do a piece on it, but they said it would make us look money-hungry. That wasn’t it, of course. We were upset that our mail was being opened. We were so angry we just blocked it out and moved on.”
One member of a third family recalls a large number of opened letters addressed to the family that it received from the American Red Cross but says, “We don’t think there was any suspicion that any money was removed in the mail. We didn’t see any of this.” The family did note, however, like the others, that money had been enclosed in the mail delivered to their home prior to the American Red Cross taking over distribution of the mail — but none was received afterward.
Formal complaints were lodged with the Postal Service and an investigation was conducted by Ellis, who in the process turned information over to the U.S. attorney in Oklahoma City. A grand jury needed to issue subpoenas to the Red Cross. It took testimony from a variety of individuals. Ultimately, as far as Insight has been able to learn, nothing came of the investigation. Bill Blaul, American Red Cross senior vice president for communications and marketing, tells Insight that his organization “cooperated with the U.S. attorney and he found no inappropriate handling of the matter, and it was closed.”
When asked to respond to the allegations that cash or checks may have been removed from the mail prior to its delivery to the intended parties, Blaul says: “The families may feel that way. I’m not sure what their memories and recollections are. The only motivation of the American Red Cross is to provide service to victims and families of the Oklahoma City and Sept. 11 attacks. We have no other motivation in opening individual mail.”
Insight then provided Blaul with specific instances where money apparently had been removed from envelopes clearly intended for a specific family. For instance, members of one family were so upset about what had happened to their mail that they wrote to people who had sent correspondence asking them to confirm whether a donation had been included. In one instance, a donor confirmed that $50 in cash had been sent along with the letter of condolence. The envelope delivered by the American Red Cross was addressed to the family through the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Red Cross. Despite the apparent intent of the donor to provide the enclosed money directly to the family, it did not receive it.
Asked about this specific example, Blaul becomes defensive and says, “I don’t know what more I can say about it. If mail is addressed to an individual we don’t open it,” he declares, contradicting what inspector Ellis told Insight. “I’m beginning to resent the implication that the Red Cross is opening mail and lifting money from the envelope,” Blaul insists.
Insight did not suggest anything untoward was or is going on in such cases. Rather, it followed up on questions raised by Oklahoma City families and victims who voiced concern about their mail and what they — and some donors — later learned about the handling of cash and other monetary donations. Specifically:
Cash donations may have been lost in the shuffle between and among agencies.
Checks made out to the Red Cross and intended for specific individuals didn’t always go to those individuals and weren’t returned to the donor.
Sometimes cash or checks went into a general fund for the Red Cross and then checks were delivered to the intended recipient.
Money received for intended relief work may not have gone directly to specified funds or charities but was absorbed into larger operating funds for future disasters.
Public accounting for how much money was received and then distributed is not readily available for public and/or press review and, apparently, not audited by government agencies.
Government funds established to receive funds for disaster relief and provide assistance did not make public “cash-in” and “cash-out” ledger records. And requests for such an accounting have not been provided.
All of which has raised disconcerting questions in the minds of many of those interviewed by Insight concerning the hundreds of millions of dollars pouring in to the New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania funds and charities working with the families and victims. For example, how are these groups cataloging the monies received, selecting individuals for disbursements and making sure that intended recipients of direct donations are, in fact, receiving them?
In the case of New York City, according to Blaul, “Thousands of pounds of mail is coming in and the American Red Cross is working with other agencies up there. We’ve got a room set aside for the mail that is coming in and we’re sorting through it. Where there are specific categories, such as firemen, we’re taking the mail without opening it and routing it to the appropriate sources. We’re not opening mail if it is addressed to individuals. The American Red Cross is doing this in a secure room with other entities and appropriate oversight.”
He does not elaborate on who or what those other entities might be.
Nor is Blaul able to provide Insight with the total amount of money received through this mail-review process. “I believe we are keeping track of only the money that is specifically meant for the Red Cross,” he says. He does not volunteer how much this amounts to, but published reports indicate the Red Cross thus far has received about $258 million in donations. How much other money Blaul’s organization has collected that was not “specifically meant for the Red Cross” could not be determined by press time.
How much ultimately was collected to assist the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing wasn’t available either. But, as a result of their own experiences, victim families of the Oklahoma City bombing have begun working with families touched by the Sept. 11 attacks. What advice have they for dealing with charitable organizations? “Don’t expect anything,” says one family, “and that way you won’t be disappointed.” Another family spokesman summed it up this way: “Oklahoma is doing great, but what about the New York families? I guess I’d tell them, ‘Don’t leave anything for someone else to do when it comes to your well-being.’ And I’d tell them to watch how the money is disbursed.”
Kelly P. O’Meara is an investigative reporter for Insight magazine.
NEWS
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Former Red Cross Director Sentenced to Probation
Hollister - The former executive director of the Red Cross was sentenced Wednesday to felony probation and 120 days bound to an electronic monitoring device after pleading no contest to misusing chapter funds, according to her attorney.
Charron Contival pleaded no contest to the felony charge of misusing chapter funds in June after nearly three years of fighting the charge in the court system, said her attorney, Arthur Cantu.
Contival will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device on her ankle at all times and will be placed on felony probation for three years, Cantu said. She will be able to do some traveling as long as she does not remove the device, he said.
“This has been a long, grueling litigation and I don’t think she’s glad (about the outcome),” Cantu said. “She’s tired.”
District Attorney John Sarsfield charged Contival with embezzling more than $20,000 by misusing a Red Cross credit card, but Cantu insists it was no more than $2,500.
Sarsfield said when a dollar amount is determined she will be required to pay back the value of what was taken.
A conference has been scheduled for next week to arrive at a more precise figure.
"I think this was fair," he said. "It sends the appropriate message that money given to charity needs to be spent on the charity."
Contival headed San Benito’s chapter from about 2001 to 2002, and the original charge of misuse of funds was filed in October of 2003. The charge stems from Contival using chapter funds to purchase personal items for her home, which was being used as a satellite station for the Red Cross, Cantu said.
