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Last updated on Friday, February 6, 2015
(INDIANAPOLIS) - 40-year-old Scott M. Gruber was sentenced to four years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker after being convicted of two counts of mail fraud and one count of structuring to evade reporting requirements.
Gruber established two professional fundraising organizations, Independent Promotions and Reliant Event Management to solicit funds for local veteran's charities.
He hired individuals to falsely represent themselves as volunteers and often as veterans to solicit funds from patrons outside local retail outlets and Monument Circle. The solicitors were schooled to tell patrons that 100 percent of the proceeds went to charities that support veterans. In fact, very little of the money ever made it to the intended veterans.
Gruber and his associates traveled to universities and colleges, as far away as Florida to solicit those funds.
Gruber personally instructed his solicitors to falsely represent that they were college students competing for scholarships by soliciting for veteran's charities. The solicitors would tell prospective contributors that they were volunteers and any amount collected would be matched as a scholarship to them. In reality, the solicitors were paid by Gruber, 40 percent of each solicitor's take.
From 2010 until 2012 Gruber and his associates collected more than $550,000 for the Purple Hearts Veterans Foundation (PHVF) and $575,000 for Service Connected Disabled Veterans of America (SDVA).
Only eight percent of the funds from PHVF ever made it to the veteran's charity and less than one percent ($4500) of the money raised for SDVA made it to any veteran.
Officials say Gruber raised more than $1,045,651 - very little of which was donated to charities.
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