A non-profit group called Humanwire based in Boulder, Colorado was allegedly the piggybank for the group’s founder—Andrew Baron.
How many more ‘non-profits’ have been set up to take advantage of gullible donors responding to the refugee ‘crisis’ around the world?
Here is the story from The Denver Post:
Boulder police on Thursday arrested Andrew Baron on felony charges of charity fraud and theft in excess of $100,000 from Humanwire, a nonprofit he said he established to help Syrian refugees.
The arrest follows an investigative report in The Denver Post on the practices of the Boulder-based charity, which managed refugee campaigns in Greece, Turkey and Lebanon.
Humanwire advertises on its website that pledges from donors go directly to needy refugees with “0 percent” going to operating costs. It offers itself up on its website as a one-to-one connection between donors and volunteers, promising to remove the “charity from the middle.”
But The Post revealed in September that amid delays in promised aid for refugees, the nonprofit’s bank records showed a steady stream of withdrawals from Humanwire’s accounts by Baron. Amid those withdrawals, more than 100 refugees who had been promised aid from Humanwire faced evictions and other deprivations, according to interviews with former Humanwire volunteers, workers and donors.
“Between October 2015 to present, Andrew Baron’s bank accounts have received all the donations for the Humanwire campaigns,” states an affidavit filed Thursday by Boulder Police Detective Traci Cravitz. “Despite stating that 100 percent of these donations would go to the intended families, at least $130,000 was used by Baron for his own personal expenses.”
Go here to read the remainder of the gory details that came to light when employees blew the whistle. As of this writing, Humanwire’s website is still up.
Speaking of employees blowing the whistle, any more brave souls out there like the “source” of the news from Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service we told you about here?
Message to readers: Feeling the desire to help those with less than you have?
Find a needy local family and support them and know exactly where your money is going! Thanksgiving is right around the corner after all.