The former director of a charity with a mission to help veterans has been convicted of spending funds to buy jewelry, and other personal possessions.
A federal jury in Washington, D.C. convicted Patricia Pauline Driscoll, the executive director of the Armed Forces Foundation (AFF) from 2003 to 2015, on Nov. 29 for two counts of first-degree fraud and both wire fraud and tax evasion.
U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu said in a written statement that Driscoll was involved in “a scheme in which she stole from the non-profit charity, defrauded donors, and lied to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the public about her salary and benefits.”
According to the U.S. Attorney, under Driscoll’s direction AFF claimed that 95 percent of donations went directly to military members, and their families.
However, Driscoll had actually filed false paperwork to hide how much money she was making and where the donated money went. Driscoll also ordered others to file false reports, the U.S. Attorney said.
These falsified documents found their way to the foundation’s Board of Directors and IRS.
Money supposedly used for the benefit of the veterans, troops, and their families, was instead spent on Driscoll’s other business and personal expenses.
According to court records, Driscoll spent some of the money on a trip to a jewelry store, groceries, dermatologist, and more than $65,000 in legal fees incurred when she accused her ex-boyfriend, NASCAR driver Kurt Busch, of domestic violence in 2014, the San Diego Tribune reported. Some of the money was spent following Busch around the country during the racing season, racing publication Kickin’ the Tires reported.
Driscoll, 40, faces a combined maximum sentence of 35 years in prison for all the charges. She is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2019. Driscoll’s lawyer, Brian W. Stolarz, maintains his client is innocent.
“We are very disappointed by the verdict and the government’s misconduct in this case,” Stolarz said in a statement, the Tribune reported. “We will appeal. This is not the final chapter to this story.”
Good Cause Perverted
The Armed Forces Foundation was established in 2001, co-founded by former Rep. Duncan L. Hunter (R-Calif.) to promote veterans’ emotional and physical health through outdoor activities, and to help needy military families pay bills.
Rep. Hunter recruited Driscoll to manage the foundation while he held an unpaid seat on the Board of Directors until 2012.
The foundation said in its 2014 IRS statement that it had found Driscoll misappropriated about $600,000 between 2006 and 2014. The documents, filed late in 2015, also confirmed the foundation is participating in an investigation of the misuse.
“Armed Forces Foundation has become aware of a suspected misappropriation of assets that involved its former executive director in the amount of $599,609,” the foundation said in the documents.
Driscoll was indicted on eight charges in September, 2016—three of which were dropped. After her indictment, the foundation announced it was shutting down, the Tribune reported.
Rep. Hunter’s son, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), succeeded his father in Congress in 2008. Once in office, he helped promote the charity and attended events.
The junior Rep. Hunter and his wife and former campaign manager, Margaret, were indicted in August, 2018, of 60 felony charges for spending some $250,000 of re-election campaign donations on personal expenses. These charges are wholly unrelated to the Armed Forces Foundation fraud case.
Rep. Hunter and his wife have pleaded not guilty, and will go to trial sometime on 2019. Rep. Hunter was re-elected in 2018.
NASCAR Connection Crashes Spectacularly
Driscoll gained a measure of notoriety in 2014 after a much-publicized domestic dispute with NASCAR star Kurt Busch.
Busch and Driscoll met and started a relationship in 2010, the Tribune reported. Driscoll convinced Busch and NASCAR to cooperate to promote the AFF. Several drivers participated in fundraising efforts for the charity.
The couple’s break-up was a lurid, tabloid-style event, with Driscoll accusing Busch of assaulting her, and Busch claiming Driscoll worked secretly as a professional assassin.
Stock-car publication Kickin’ the Tires began investigating Driscoll after the 2014 incident, laying out in great detail how much money Driscoll was taking from the foundation and what she was spending it on.
Driscoll Accused of Workplace Bullying
According to Kickin’ the Tires, a whistleblower inside the foundation reported on Driscoll. In retaliation, Driscoll filed a police report, in the name of the Armed Forces Foundation, accusing the same whistleblower of theft.
The theft charge could not be substantiated. According to Kickin’ the Tires, federal prosecutors considered using the police report to bring a case of attempted witness-tampering against Driscoll.
A second AFF employee spoke to Kickin’ the Tires on the condition of anonymity. This person wanted to make it clear that AFF employees, except Driscoll, were truly committed to the cause.
“She is clearly a bully,” the former employee said. “Even though she made their lives miserable, people stayed because they believed in the cause. The staff had no knowledge of what she was doing financially. I never saw anything that I knew to be illegal because had I known that I would have said something.”
“I would hate for people to think the entire organization was fraudulent because that is not the case at all.”
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