Veteran’s charity wants to keep secrets again
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The Houston veteran charity Helping a Hero wants a State District Judge to help them keep their financial records secret from the public, who has donated millions to help wounded war veterans.
Tomorrow morning at 9 AM, in the 113th District Court of Judge Michael Landrum, Helping a Hero will try to gain a protective order to block review of 2014 financial records by Dolcefino Consulting.
Dolcefino Consulting, an investigative communications firm here in Houston has been probing the financial practices of Helping a Hero since 2013 at the request of disabled war heroes and their families.
In April 2014 Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson told the charity to comply with Texas non-profit laws and the charity did release years of financial records. Many of the expenditures had no accompanying receipts or explanations of what the expenditures were for.
The Dolcefino Consulting probe began after veterans and former charity board members complained about secrecy by the founder of the charity Meredith Iler. In December 2014 Dolcefino Consulting filed an updated request to examine spending after news reports last year.
Helping a Hero claimed they sought a legal opinion from the Texas Attorney General but months later Dolcefino Consulting discovered the Attorney General claimed no record of the request.
On May 13th, Helping a Hero went to court to seal records of how they spent millions in your donations.
“ I think every Texas charity should welcome people to come in and see how they spend money and that is exactly why we have the law”, says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “Helping a Hero is raising money on behalf of war heroes and they are worried what we will see. That is a giant red flag.”
Helping a Hero claims Dolcefino Consulting asked for the records on behalf of the Pinkerton Law Firm, representing a former veteran and his wife in another lawsuit against the charity.
“ I continue to work for these veterans because my family owes them gratitude for their sacrifice, says Dolcefino.” Helping a Hero wants to use these guys and their injuries to get donations, and then treat them poorly. Didn’t they suffer enough for us”.
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