CBS Investigation Raises Questions About Wounded Warrior Project
BOSTON (CBS) - A CBS News investigation into lavish spending by the Wounded Warrior Project has veterans groups in Massachusetts reacting.
More than 40 current and former employees of the prominent veterans charity told CBS about lavish parties, $2500 bar tabs and expensive resort trips for employees.
New Hampshire native Erick Millette, a combat vet and former Wounded Warrior Project employee, helped blow the whistle on over the top expenditures.
"You're using our injuries, our darkest days, our hardships so you can make money," he said. "Donors don't want you to have $2500 bar tab. Donors don't want you to fly every staff member once a year to some five star resort to whoop it up."
Financial reports show Wounded Warrior Project spent more than $26 million in 2014 on conferences, meetings and events for staff members.
That's almost the same amount they spent on combat stress recovery, its largest program for veterans.
WBZ-TV's Kate Merrill reports
"I'm not disgruntled," Millette says. "I want to make sure these brave men and women are taken care of."
It's a far cry from the work done by Dominic Marcellino and Mike McNulty who run Disabled and Limbless Veterans, Inc. They provide clothing, food and rides to combat vets in Massachusetts.
"100 percent of everything we do goes back to veterans," Marcellino says.
He was reluctant to criticize Wounded Warrior Project but says expenses like theirs should raise red flags. He stresses that that is why it is so important for donors to research where their money is going.
"If you look at the numbers they're so large and where does the money go? I don't know anyone that's ever had a house built by him," Marcellino says.
WBZ contacted several local veterans charity organizations. None could point to disabled veterans who had received direct services from Wounded Warriors Project.
"At some point, someone has to stand up and do the hard right, over the easy wrong and the easy wrong is to allow it to continue and not take a stand," Millette told WBZ. "Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn't see is how they spend their money."
Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, also a veteran, saw the story. He says, what CBS uncovered is truly outrageous.
"Veterans put their lives on the line to serve their country, to serve all of us, not to serve themselves," Moulton says. "Veterans charities should be serving veterans not serving themselves."
It's the reaction Millette was hoping for and is now starting to see. "Overall there's been a tremendous amount of support for this story, quite the opposite of what I thought it would be," he says.
The I-Team looked through recent filings and found the Wounded Warrior Project gave $250,000 to Massachusetts General Hospital and another $150,000 to an organization that defends charities.
In an email, a spokesman for the group says they served 2700 injured veterans and their families out of the Boston office in 2015.
In addition, they are partnering with Massachusetts General Hospital and the Home Base Veterans program to expand mental health care to veterans. That will mean a $15 million investment in Boston over three years.
WBZ-TV's Lauren Leamanczyk and Kate Merrill contributed to this report.