It is as you state rather difficult to tell from that story whether or not the issue is one of incompetence or criminality. If I was to guess, I'd suspect a bit of both.

Joe - I have a feeling this one smells a bit. What is the Ill AG going to do with the money? Return it to the givers? I think that is a good and fair question.

I sense this is a move to use the legal system to penalize someone trying to do a bit of good that the AG and other political powers-that-be do not want good being done for. There is no mention of criminal charges being files against this org. Why not? If there was a crime there should be crminal charges.

Or is this a case of "...failing to register with the Illinois Attorney General as a charitable organization..." being used as a political lever? I sense this is a case of an overzealous AG manipulating the legal system to silence an effort out of his control and possibly that he does not approve of.

Or am I totally off base here?

The Hobo

No, Hobo, it's possible that you're right. Which is why I laid it out this way. But even being as generous as possible to OMP's founder, she's either incompetent to an amazing degree or misrepresented what OMP did. Not excusable.

Note that civil judgements for fraud are not dischargable in bankruptcy.

Interesting point. Does the injunction qualify legally as a civil judgment for fraud? Bueller? Anyone?

Fraud, injunctions, civil penalties . . .

What are things that can’t be discharged in bankruptcy?

Although there are court decisions that indicate that an injunction that essentially only compels someone to pay money is dischargeable.

From reviewing the docket sheet, it looks like she was represented by counsel and there was regular activity for about 10 months until the attorney withdrew in November with the court’s permission. He probably wasn’t getting paid.

When the attorney withdrew, the court ordered her to appear at a progress hearing on January 5. The reason for the hearing might have been to determine whether she was representing herself or had new counsel. On January 5, a progress hearing was scheduled for January 19. My guess is she didn’t attend the January 5 hearing. She certainly didn’t attend the January 19 hearing since she was found in default.

The effect of the default was a legal admission to all the allegations of the State’s complaint, but the State still had to prove up the monetary portion. She could still have got the default lifted. On February 21, the State proved up the monetary amount with exhibits. It would have been one-sided proceeding,* but there would have been something to make the court feel comfortable that the State wasn’t simply making up numbers.

She probably still has time to get the default judgment lifted and still time to appeal.

Nothing looked unusual to me.

• The kind of proceeding in which Saddam was found responsible in abstentia for 9/11.

This is too bad. I have requested to adopted several soldiers from OMP and always received legit names and addresses. I am also a member of their forum, which helps out soldiers in need. She does a lot of good for the troops.

Bobbie

As a military supporter I find this worthy of reading. I used to be a member there, until they banned a woman in the group for asking a money question years ago. I wondered what happened to them but I moved on.

I do not find them on the DoD America Supports You site as mentioned above. I see one similar to it but not them. Must be a reason for them not being there.

The Chicago Tribune article was gentle with what they said. My suspicions raise when the article said she stated a miscommunication of court dates. If I was the reporter I would point out the dates and times are listed on the county clerks website and if she wanted to know it she could have looked as anyone interested or involved with them could for that case or any other with case number. And to not show up for your own court date? That makes me wonder too. No miscommunication, just failure to show and fight a losing battle.

I would doubt the AG would file anything without having given opportunity to register and become legit. No political gain by a suit like this. Look at the state website. Would have been far cheaper to register than fight in court. Why not account for funds? Why ban someone for asking something about money?

The Chicago Tribune article also states they got DVD's and more donated or sent. I would love to know how, or if, they really did since the few places I have asked for items to send to soldiers have all asked for a tax exempt number and could not donate because they were not allowed to write it off as a donation for the company without a number. If epople sign up and get their own soldier to write to then I think there is no need to fundraise for an organization whose volunteers are the REAL ones doing the work.

I had no idea this all was happening until recently but it is nice to know someone is going to make accountable the people that cast a shadow on the legit organizations trying so hard to survive.

For the poster above: Are you the Bobbie that sells on ebay or links to them from some website you sell stuff at and give them some money from what you receive? Is that aiding them in illegal fundraising? Did they claim it on personal imcome taxes if they were not registered?

This woman has a long history of "forgetting", "misunderstanding", or exhibiting "I-didn't-know" behavior. EVERYONE should look further back into her history and the history of her organization. I suggest looking into AZ. (Kim....I think you may remember me from the old boards.)

I was also a member for awhile. She did infact ban a few members for asking questions about where the money goes and if she was registered. I left the group when it seemed they were more interested in getting money and the begging didn't stop. I certainly don't think she acted alone in this.

OMG, I am currently in shock and I don't know what to say. I have known Arlyn since 1994 dealing with Military City Online where we both hosted on AOL in a chatroom. I met her in WA in person that year as well, and knew her prior to her beginning Operation Military Pride. When it started up, it's as she said it was, friends; family; and those who care; sending care packages; emails; and letters/cards, etc. to our Servicemen and woman across the Country and in other Countries. I supported that wholeheartedly. At that time, she checked out with the State of WA completely and everything was ligit. After checking it out, I then started supporting financially from my webstore with a portion of my sales (and from Ebay) going to OMP to help with sending packages and maintaining the boards for OMP members to chat and help organize things. OMG, I just can't believe this. I am so upset right now that I don't even know what to do. I have contributed so much money to OMP since it began in 1995 (and I have my receipts for it) and I'm in shock thinking that it was hard-earned money of mine, that appears to have possibly been spent not where it was intended to have been spent. :( I'm sorry if I'm not making sense, I do that when I'm upset and confused.

Joe, I thank you for posting this and bringing it to our attention.

I don't know what to say, I NEVER would have thought this was possible with Arlyn. Our Nephew was in Iraq twice and he was adopted by OMP folks and he received a bunch of cards/letters/postcards/packages, etc. One of our Sons is Navy and when he was on deployment last year (and now there again) he received many packages from OMP members. I personally adopted several Military personnel and they all received my packages/letters/cards/emails and communicated back. I still feel that part of things (OMP) is ligit, and I hope that I'm not wrong. However, regarding the financial part of things, how can I feel that is ligit now with what has happened??

WOW. Why?????????????

I worked with this group on a few occations being a military spouse. I also knew the founder Arlyn prior to working with her group. I watched first had the mis use of donated funds. Hundreds of dollars donated at a 4th of July event. I questioned how the cash was tracked since I have worked with non profits before. She always said it would be done at her home later. I watched funds taken out of the donation boxes and given to her children to go get something to eat at the consession stands when she noticed me watching she said she would give the money back later. I watched her and her husband count the funds later but never heard or watched it be deposited. I told my husband that I could no longer be affiliated with them in any way including frendship and even sent a letter to all the base commanders in my state with my concerns. This is not a case of oops I had no idea I am trying to do good for the troops this is what it is. It may not have started out as a way to make money and pay her bills. But it definatly ended up that way and it is a shame that people trusted and believed what they were doing. I am sure men and women received care packages from this group. I question how many more should have been sent. If you send 1 out of 1000 you still can say you sent 1.

I had very similar experiences as Sgtsgirl with Arlyn and Mark. I worked with the group for about 3 years, donating time, effort, articles and funds. When I started questioning things, I was bascially slandered and ostracized. I went immediately to the AZ Attorney General when my suspicions began, but by the time they acknowledged my inquiry, the McClaughry's had moved to Illinois. (BTW, I did notify AZ of the Illinois case.)

Hindsight is 20/20, but my opinion is that they knew all along what they were doing, and have been running one step ahead of being found out, until Illinois caught up with them. I'm sure they are probably responsible for alot more than what they were found culpable for. I can attest to a few incidents in AZ that IL was aware of, but had no jurisdiction over. (as they referred me back to AZ again. Follow the bouncing ball.)

Also, no OMP supporter/member can say they weren't warned of suspicious activity, a few of us made it quite clear what are concerns were, only to be told that we were "troublemakers".

Our troops and civilians deserved better than to be misled by such unscrupoulous, predatory behavior.

Roberta,
Why don't you contact the attorney general or attorney who tried the case to see if she could use a copy of the receipts you have showing you donated for so long to them? Maybe they could use that. Maybe they only had available to them the receipts or records to a certain time back and yours goes back farther?

Does ANYONE know if the IRS is aware of this? Wondering if the money raised was ever claimed on personal taxes as income since they were clearly NOT a registered "charity" to raise funds. If the IRS was not aware before I sure hope they get informed so the taxes on their unreported and unregistered income gets paid. Time for the IRS to take back what was taken from the kind hearted volunteers who were taken in by this scam.

No reason to be fundraising if the volunteers are sending their own packages.

I hear they are now sending out sympathy cards to fallen troops families and asking people to put they got the name from OMP. How pathetic of a way to get and try to keep their name out there.

I, too, was a member of OMP. I find it odd that Arlene allegedly said that she never "claimed to be a charity," when throughout the years I was a member, her applications for charity-status were always said by her to be under way. In fact, that was one of the main reasons I dropped out. By 2005, after allegedly trying to obtain charity status for a decade -- supposedly with legal assistance over the latest few years, I figured something just must not be right. In addition, anyone who asked any questions about OMP's charity status or financial records was verbally attacked or banned. And, yes, OMP is still sending out e-newsletters and requests for condolence cards. I receive them almost daily.

I do not know Arlene, or anyone else from OMP except in cyberspace. I don't know what her motives or actions were. I just know that by 2005, it was no longer doing the things that I expected of it. I am heartsick that funds sincerely donated for our troops may have been used for other purposes. I'm glad the law finally caught up with her.

While I was participating, OMP gave me the names and addresses of several service members. I sent packages to them directly and the only entity that made any money off that was the USPS. For a while I also donated money to OMP which was supposedly to be used by Arlyn to buy and mail "care packages" to other service members. I'm quite sure Arlyn knew she was running a charity because I had quite a correspondence with her over the course of almost a year about her supposed efforts to get 501©3 registration for OMP. I finally gave up and ended my participation in OMP. I do want to apologize to any other former OMP members for my decision to go quietly and not speak out publicly. My hunch apparently was right and I should have done more to alert others. Sorry. aloha :) ray