News

<p>It takes a special kind of dirtbag to scam money that&#39;s supposed to go to wounded military veterans and James Linville is that kind of guy. The 44-year-old man of Clark County, Kentucky is under arrest for orchestrating a scam that <strong>robbed more than 1,000 people out of $150,000</strong> under the guise that the money would be going to veterans.</p><p>&quot;The acts of these fraudsters have eroded the trust and goodwill of those who want to contribute to legitimate fundraising organizations, including those that support our veterans,&quot; US Attorney Josh Minkler said in a statement to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/16/politics/wounded-warrior-arrests/index.html?sr=twCNNp031618wounded-warrior-arrests1002AMVODtop&amp;CNNPolitics=Tw">CNN</a>. &quot;Our American veterans have dutifully served this country through many wars and deserve better than to be deprived of donations from giving donors.&quot;</p><p>Lineville and his 3 crookster pals have been indicted on 227 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy. Joanie Watson and Thomas Johnson were also arrested, along with Lineville&#39;s ex-girlfriend Amy Lou Bennett, who was arrested Wednesday at at a Kentucky trailer park. <strong>They could get up to 20 years in prison.</strong></p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h3>His phony charity was meant to look like The Wounded Warrior Project.</h3><p>The <a href="https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/">Wounded Warrior Project</a> is a multi-million dollar charity that&#39;s been around since 2003 and features national advertisements with country musician Trace Adkins. James Linville&#39;s scam was meant to deceive charitable donors and went under the name of Wounded Warrior Foundation, Inc.</p><figure class="image"><div class="image-container"><img alt="wounded warrior fake" data-attribution="CNN" data-attribution-url="" height="420" src="//cdn.someecards.com/posts/wounded-warrior-scam-8gqRfE.jpg" width="670" /></div><div class="image-attribution">CNN</div></figure><div className="ad-splitter"></div><div><span style="font-size:20px;">The <a href="https://www.someecards.com/life/digital-life/text-scammer-prayer-a-day">scam</a> artists used flyers promising assistance to the families of veterans , financial aid for state VFWs and calling cards for &quot;those who defend our freedom.&quot; </span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-size:20px;">No money was ever given to any veterans or veteran support groups, says law enforcement. The group also claimed that it was an IRS Approved 501(c)(3) charity, though no evidence of that has been found. </span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-size:20px;">&quot;This organization -- this fake organization -- was asking people for food donations, for hotel rooms for veterans, for donations from different businesses that would be raffled or organized off for this, what people thought was a legitimate organization,&quot; </span><span style="font-size:20px;">Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel told CNN</span></div><h3>James Linville dared law enforcement to try and lock him up.</h3><p><span style="font-size:20px;">Linville</span> has been arrested before for charges ranging from drugs and check fraud to domestic battery. When investigators began digging into his phony charity three years ago, he started calling the Clark County Sheriff&#39;s Office and leaving angry voicemails.</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>Linville called Detective Donnie Bowyer&#39;s answering machine some 30 times, daring the police to try and arrest him.</p><blockquote> <p>&quot;I&#39;ll make a mockery of your court. I&#39;m a sovereign citizen, mother***ker. American born sovereign citizen,&quot; he can be heard saying on one of the messages.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Your f**king state laws don&#39;t apply to me in any way,&quot; Linville told the detective on another voicemail. &quot;I will make a mockery of your f**king court. And I&#39;ll destroy the sheriff&#39;s department.&quot;</p> </blockquote><p>The voicemails of course only added to the case being built against him.</p><figure class="image"><div class="image-container"><img alt="wounded warrior scam" data-attribution="CNN" data-attribution-url="" height="296" src="//cdn.someecards.com/posts/james-linvill-scam-JA0amy.jpg" width="606" /></div><div class="image-attribution">CNN</div></figure><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h3>People are pissed off about the James Linville scam.</h3><p>Those who donated money to the group haven&#39;t gotten their money back and the six bank accounts used by Linville to run the scam have been drained.</p><p>Dan Cristiani was one of the victims who was scammed by the con artists and donated over a $1,000, believing that the money was going to help ex-military in honor of his late father who was a recipient of two Purple Heart awards. &quot;I felt like I was taken advantage of,&quot; the 69-year-old told CNN.</p><p>&quot;We have not seen a case like this using veterans names and quite honestly that&#39;s what made this case so appealing,&quot; said special agent in charge, Richard Ferretti. &quot;It&#39;s not the largest dollar amount of fraud loss, but it&#39;s the most hurtful that we&#39;ve seen here.</p><div class="oembedall-container sec-iframe sec-oembed-iframe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">despicable - 4 charged with using &#39;Wounded Warrior&#39; name to raise over $150,000 for personal profit <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNNPolitics</a> <a href="https://t.co/Jp39NULYNh">https://t.co/Jp39NULYNh</a></p>&mdash; Jim Wang (@WalletHacks) <a href="https://twitter.com/WalletHacks/status/974665615607828480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

James Linville, 3 things to know about the Wounded Warrior scam artist.

It takes a special kind of dirtbag to scam money that&#39;s supposed to go to wounded military veterans and James Linville is that kind of guy. The 44-year-old man of Clark County, Kentucky is under arrest for orchestrating a scam that robbed more than 1,000 people out of $150,000 under the guise that the money would be going to veterans.&quot;The acts of these fraudsters have eroded the trust and goodwill of those who want to contribute to legitimate fundraising organizations, including those that support our veterans,&quot; US Attorney Josh Minkler said in a statement to CNN. &quot;Our American veterans have dutifully served this country through many wars and deserve better than to be deprived of donations from giving donors.&quot;Lineville and his 3 crookster pals have been indicted on 227 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy. Joanie Watson and Thomas Johnson were also arrested, along with Lineville&#39;s ex-girlfriend Amy Lou Bennett, who was arrested Wednesday at at a Kentucky trailer park. They could get up to 20 years in prison.His phony charity was meant to look like The Wounded Warrior Project.The Wounded Warrior Project is a multi-million dollar charity that&#39;s been around since 2003 and features national advertisements with country musician Trace Adkins. James Linville&#39;s scam was meant to deceive charitable donors and went under the name of Wounded Warrior Foundation, Inc.CNNThe scam artists used flyers promising assistance to the families of veterans , financial aid for state VFWs and calling cards for &quot;those who defend our freedom.&quot;  No money was ever given to any veterans or veteran support groups, says law enforcement. The group also claimed that it was an IRS Approved 501(c)(3) charity, though no evidence of that has been found.  &quot;This organization -- this fake organization -- was asking people for food donations, for hotel rooms for veterans, for donations from different businesses that would be raffled or organized off for this, what people thought was a legitimate organization,&quot; Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel told CNNJames Linville dared law enforcement to try and lock him up.Linville has been arrested before for charges ranging from drugs and check fraud to domestic battery. When investigators began digging into his phony charity three years ago, he started calling the Clark County Sheriff&#39;s Office and leaving angry voicemails.Linville called Detective Donnie Bowyer&#39;s answering machine some 30 times, daring the police to try and arrest him. &quot;I&#39;ll make a mockery of your court. I&#39;m a sovereign citizen, mother***ker. American born sovereign citizen,&quot; he can be heard saying on one of the messages.  Your f**king state laws don&#39;t apply to me in any way,&quot; Linville told the detective on another voicemail. &quot;I will make a mockery of your f**king court. And I&#39;ll destroy the sheriff&#39;s department.&quot; The voicemails of course only added to the case being built against him.CNNPeople are pissed off about the James Linville scam.Those who donated money to the group haven&#39;t gotten their money back and the six bank accounts used by Linville to run the scam have been drained.Dan Cristiani was one of the victims who was scammed by the con artists and donated over a $1,000, believing that the money was going to help ex-military in honor of his late father who was a recipient of two Purple Heart awards. &quot;I felt like I was taken advantage of,&quot; the 69-year-old told CNN.&quot;We have not seen a case like this using veterans names and quite honestly that&#39;s what made this case so appealing,&quot; said special agent in charge, Richard Ferretti. &quot;It&#39;s not the largest dollar amount of fraud loss, but it&#39;s the most hurtful that we&#39;ve seen here.despicable - 4 charged with using &#39;Wounded Warrior&#39; name to raise over $150,000 for personal profit @CNNPolitics https://t.co/Jp39NULYNh&mdash; Jim Wang (@WalletHacks) March 16, 2018 