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INVESTIGATION: VETERANS GET NO ANSWERS FROM
FIDUCIARIES HANDLING THEIR FUNDS -- "There
should have been $9,000 they were banking
and in savings and I don't have nothing."
Getting inside the VA's fiduciary program is
impossible.
Most fiduciaries handle funds for veterans who
have been declared incompetent, so, if the veteran complains about
missing money, who listens? Certainly not the VA.
For more about VA fiduciaries, use the VA
Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=fiduciary&op=and
Be sure to watch the video at the link below.
You can also view some of the documents mentioned in the story.
Story here...
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/
myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=
4064033&version=1&locale=EN-US&
layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
Story below:
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Investigation: Still No Answers for Vets in
Fiduciary Fiasco
Becky Oliver
A presidential commission is urging major changes in veterans'
healthcare, including disability pay for vets returning home from Iraq
and Afghanistan. But what about veterans who fought in wars of the past?
For more than a year, FOX 4’s Becky Oliver has found plenty of disable
veterans in north Texas fighting for basic living essentials. The V.A.
claims these disabled vets need help managing their money and can’t do
it themselves. But the vets say the V.A.’s management program is what’s
disabled.
Kendall Beck dreams of living in a nice home again and perhaps enjoying
simple pleasures like working in the yard and flower beds. Instead, Beck
and his wife squeeze in to a cramped two-bedroom apartment that can
barely hold furniture.
"What gets me if when you serve your country and then when you get back
and you are not treated right," Beck told FOX 4.
Beck spent two years in the Air Force. He now takes medication for
schizophrenia so the V.A. assigned a “fiduciary,” a money manager, to
handle his finances. Beck is supposed to receive about $30,000 a year in
disability pay.
Paulette Riley is Beck’s fiduciary. Riley pays Beck’s rent and other
bills and gives him $900 a month for expenses. Beck has no idea where
the rest of his money is going and when he calls Riley with questions,
"she hangs up all the time," claims Beck.
Beck called Riley while we listened on a speaker phone. "Could you send
me a bank statement, please?" Becky asked Riley. Riley said, "No."
Federal law prevents us from broadcasting the conversation on TV without
Riley’s consent.
Beck explained to Riley that he wanted to know where his extra money is
going. Riley got angry on the phone, but assured Beck that she isn’t
stealing his money and told him "I value my freedom a lot and more than
the piddly-(expletive) money you are giving me." Riley then hung up on
Beck. Beck says that’s how Riley always treats him when he calls.
In FOX 4’s previous reports on the V.A.’s fiduciary program for disabled
vets, the vets have generally complained that they can’t get records
about their own money. FOX 4 filed requests for that information under
the Freedom of Information Act. Eleven months later, we received
one-page summaries of their accounts which raise even more questions
about what’s happening with their money.
Beck’s accounting statement shows he had more than $7,000 in his savings
account as of December 2006…enough to take a vacation, buy a used car,
or rent the home he desperately wants. “I am puzzled,” Beck told FOX 4
when we showed him the paperwork. “It is a shock to me,” Beck continued.
Paulette Riley declined an on-camera interview with FOX 4’s Becky
Oliver. So, Becky tried to speak with her outside the V.A. hospital in
Dallas. Riley refused to answer questions and referred us to the
fiduciary office in Waco. Becky explained to Riley that we wanted to ask
her directly about Beck’s finances since she is his fiduciary. Riley
said, "Leave me alone."
Matthew Spriggs didn’t know where his disability money was going until
we showed him the latest accounting statement from his fiduciary, Paul
Stewart. Spriggs' accounting statement shows Stewart disbursed every
penny of Spriggs’ money. “That does not make any sense,” said Spriggs.
Spriggs thought he was banking money for a house every month. He has no
idea why he is paying back a loan amount he doesn’t remember borrowing.
Spriggs says no one ever told him they took $6,000 from his account.
FOX 4 first reported on Spriggs’ situation in May 2006. After Paul
Stewart declined an on-camera interview with Becky Oliver, we paid him a
visit in Waco. “Can I ask you a few questions?” asked Oliver. “No, I
don’t want you on my property,” Stewart responded.
Following our stories last year, the V.A. launched an investigation of
Paul Stewart and his wife, Sonia Stewart, who is also a fiduciary. The
V.A.’s on-site review determined “no indication of misuse of funds” but
Spriggs was assigned a new fiduciary. Spriggs still wants to know about
the money Paul Stewart paid from his account. “There should have been
$9,000 they were banking and in savings and I don’t have nothing,” said
Spriggs.
Vanessa Chambers is still fuming over her brother, Earl’s home repair
fiasco. The V.A. used Chamber’s money to hire contractors but no one
followed-up.
“We had no say over anything,” said Vanessa Chambers. “That’s his money.
He should have a say over this contractor versus that contractor,”
Chambers continued. The work was sloppy and never completed. The
Chambers complain the accounting statement, prepared by Earl Chambers’
fiduciary, Sonia Stewart is so messy they cannot see how they money was
sent.
Stewart was cleared of any wrong-doing in the V.A.’s on-site review.
In June, FOX 4 showed V.A. Secretary, Jim Nicholson a copy of Earl
Chambers’ accounting statement. “I don’t know about you, but if this is
what you got at the end of the year from your accountant, I think you’d
be a little disappointed, frustrated in trying to read this and figure
out where everything is going,” said Becky Oliver. “Yeah, probably,”
responded Nicholson.
“They don’t know where their money is going,” explained Oliver. “Well,
they are entitled to know that,” responded Nicholson. “You are talking
to the boss so, let’s see if we can get it resolved,” said Nicholson. “I
will look in to this because if there is a problem we need to get it
solved,” Nicholson continued.
We never heard back from VA Secretary Nicholson and we’re probably not
going to. Just last month he announced his resignation, effective
October 1, 2007.
The VA’s regional director, Carl Lowe, who oversees the local fiduciary
program, spoke to FOX 4 last year, but would not talk to us on camera
now.
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson says she met with secretary
Nicholson on this issue, but she too is frustrated with the lack of
response from the VA. “I really don’t know what leverage we have to
attempt to get better responses,” said Congresswoman Johnson. We have
talked about having a hearing on these kind of abuses veterans are
suffering and we still might do that,” Johnson continued.
But for families like the Chambers, the Spriggs, and the Becks, it’s all
talk and no action.
“My brother got an honorable discharge,” said Vanessa Chambers. “That
means he did what he was supposed to do and now…it’s they say you take
what we give you. That is not fair and it is very frustrating.”
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Larry Scott --
