It really wasn’t a long telephone call. “Jack Miller” was on the line recently to the New To Las Vegas world headquarters seeking a donation for National Coalition for Disabled Veterans PAC. The stated mission of this organization with a Chicago business address, I was told, was to improve the quality of life for disabled and hospitalized veterans by electing sympathetic politicians to fight for funding.
Okay, I said. How much money was spent last year by NCDV-PAC for this mission?
“I can’t hear you,” “Miller” said. I politely repeated the question.
“I’ll add you to the do-not-call list,” “Miller said. “Goodbye.” Click.
If “Miller” and his organization were on the up-and-up, that shouldn’t have been a hard question to answer. But “Miller” wasn’t a real person (hence my use of quote marks), but rather a computer-generated voice using soundboard technology. A human operator monitoring multiple conversations at a time hits a keyboard to unleash pre-recorded answers to expected questions, easily handling multiple pitches simultaneously and hundreds of asks a shift.
Nor, as I discovered after looking at official public-but-hard-to-find filings, was NCDV-PAC anything close to a worthwhile entity. In its three-and-a-half-year of existence, NCDV-PAC has raised millions of dollars in contributions across the country. Here, according to its own filed-under-penalty-of-perjury reports, is exactly how much of that was spent for the claimed cause during important election cycles:
Zero.
NCDV-PAC is what I call a faux charity. That’s a political action committee that presents as a charity doing noble things, but in reality spends all the money raised in fundraising expense, overhead and undisclosed profits paid to its hidden organizers. There are scores and scores of faux charities out there, more than a few of which I have outed in this space. (Simply type “faux” in the nearby search box to see my body of work here.) Why the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission, the two federal agencies with the most jurisdiction over PACs, allow this to happen is beyond me.
This was NCDV-PAC’s first-ever call to me, although I immediately recognized the m.o. even before I started looking at the depressing paperwork, filed in this case with the IRS.
Since its creation in 2020, NCDV-PAC received $3.8 million in contributions through December 31, 2023. It spent almost exactly the same amount in fundraising, related expenses and overhead like accounting, database management and IT. There were no listed expenditures at all–not one dime–for political contributions, mission advocacy, voter outreach or any of the other elements one might associate with a genuine political organization. And since the fundraising and back-office expenditures essentially matched contributions, there’s no big war chest going into the 2024 election cycle.
Outrageous, I say. It’s so bad that even NCDV-PAC admits on its website in the smallest possible type at the very bottom of a long page reached only by deep scrolling, “A large portion of the donations given to our organization are used to help offset the costs associated with fundraising.” Would-be suckers donors on the phone quickly pressured to commit to a donation, of course, are not told about this, even if they ask like I did. Instead, the soundboard technician is taught just to end the call. Clearly, uninformed folks on the line is the bred and butter of NCDV-PAC.
According to NCDV-PAC’s filings, most of the money raised went to a handful of vendors whose names pop up in filings for other faux charities. It’s highly likely they are the ones behind NCDV-PAC rather than, say, good-spirited citizens coming together to form a “coalition” to help those who need help. Among the named vendors: GSI Inc., Warren, Mich.; Public Support Services Inc, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Political Response Inc., Sheridan, Wyo.; United Calling Solutions Inc., Kennesaw, Ga.; and Campaign Marketing Inc., Knoxville, Tenn.
NCDV-PAC legally sprung to life on October 5, 2020, by virtue of a three-page electronic filing with the IRS announcing its creation. Then and now, NCDV-PAC listed its business and mailing address at what looks like a mail drop in a high-rise building on E. Erie St. just outside the Chicago Loop. The filing came five months after registration of the domain name disabledvets.org. The sole person mentioned in the filings is one Judith Gragert. She is listed as treasurer, custodian of records and “contact person.”
I sent a request for comment to Gragert and NCDV-PAC to the email address listed on the website. I’ll update this post if I hear back, which, based on my long experience querying faux charities, is unlikely. I also called a number on the NCDV-PAC website for the “privacy officer.” It was answered by a recorded female voice I recognized from other faux charities I have contacted. I didn’t bother to leave a message.
NCDV-PAC also trolls for money under the trade name Handicapped Veterans Service Dogs Initiative. A separate web page, on a domain registered in 2022, says the purpose here is to seek legislation that would provide service dogs to vets with mental health conditions. But again, according to NCDV-PAC’s filings, nothing has been spent toward that cause, either.
Besides “Jack Miller,” NCDV-PAC uses other noms de plume. (Click here to hear a recent, highly entertaining tape-recorded NCDV-PAC pitch from “Randy Morgan” posted on YouTube by a savvy consumer clearly playing along, including providing an obviously incorrect credit card number.)
If you get a call from NCDV-PAC, this is my suggestion: Just say you can’t hear anything, and hang up.