Last updated on 2015.02.12
Huge news! Nathan Fluit, who went public last fall with the fact that non-profit doctor Annette Bosworth had scammed him out of $1,000 for a raffle that she never held, has received justice. Fluit reports that he came home from work today to find a letter from the state's consumer protection office with a $1,000 check from Preventive Health Strategies, Bosworth's non-profit.
Note that this check comes nine months after the Moody County land raffle deadline passed with no drawing. It comes five months after Fluit went public with his experience with Bosworth's raffle scam. It comes two months after the Attorney General's office acted on five formal complaints by raffle ticket holders by questioning numerous people and after Bosworth and her husband Chad Haber claimed that employees had stolen the raffle money and records and made a drawing or refunds impossible.
And it comes one day after Bosworth claimed to have raised over three quarters of a million dollars for her Senate campaign.
Let us thank Attorney General Marty Jackley for finally getting Annette Bosworth to do right by at least one of the raffle ticket holders she duped with her poorly managed money-making schemes. But let us note that once again, it requires the action of the South Dakota Attorney General to get Annette Bosworth to give back money that's not hers.
Update 22:37 CDT: The check Fluit received is a PHS check, sent first to the Division of Consumer Protection. It is dated April 3, 2014.
Update 22:40 CDT: Sources report that DCI contacted another raffle ticket holder said that PHS sent the Attorney General's office five raffle refund checks. Unfortunately, there was no check for this raffle holder, for whom DCI is still pursuing a refund.
Lol. I am glad she was able to find those " stolen" documents and refund people.
Ah! This will serve as her acknowledgement that the land raffle was really a scam.
Why isn't this person in jail?
Aren't there around 13 people that bought tickets? So, they have to file with the AG in order to get their refund?
There were just over 30 names on the land raffle ticket holders list. I thought I heard there were 9 complaints. But I would imagine that refunds would either have to come from people cI would imagine that the the refunds would have to come from the AG's office, Dept. of Consumer Protection, to people who can prove they bought tickets in the raffle. Doesn't sound like PHS is being forthcoming with refunds of their own volition, but I could be wrong. There was really so little money involved, if Bosworth/Habrer had just issued checks months ago, this would never have been an issue, and many other issues of fraud probably never would have surfaced to plague them.
Shouldn't the AG contact the ticket holders to inform them of the situation and at least see if they want a refund? And if the answer is "no thanks" shouldn't the money go to some other entity than PHS?
It's good to see that the AG's Office has done something about this. There may be more repercussions for Preventative Health Strategies or its operators that are not yet apparent, and may not be. Most likely they will not get off just by paying fines. They may have to pay the AG's investigative costs also, and perhaps some criminal charges may come of it but probably not. This is a positive development though.
Why is Bosworth paying back campaign scam debts out of a nonprofit account? What kind of nonprofit is Preventive Health Strategies and where does its money come from?
Kate, you ask a really good question. Is anyone aware of any current PHS fundraising activities or ongoing revenue streams?
I googled PHS and the link took me to the Secretary of States's website. OOPS!(the old site) Gant has a new website as of yesterday,I believe. Things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser.
Chads dad Denten Haber was Annettes partner in PHS. He was the major contributor to PHS. He passed away about a year ago. One of the very last things he did was to write a large check to PHS to build the Denton Haber school and clinic in Haiti. In the latest video of Annettes she speaks about Chad and her oldest son leaving for Haiti for 3 mo. This is the time he was supposed to be building the school and clinic. He made a huge deal about it at his dads funeral and said he was going on a one way ticket and wasn't coming back until it was done. There is no clinic and school in Haiti. They scammed good ole dad. Joel Arends sent them on this latest trip to the Philippines, so he is a contributor also.
Consider this, Grain: your dad dies, your family is living in an RV in the middle of winter, and you get a big unexpected inheritance. What do you do: invest in a warm, affordable home for your family, or leave your wife and two of your kids freezing in the RV park while you fly off to the Caribbean on a pretend humanitarian mission?
But wait: maybe Chad did invest in a warm, affordable home, with a view of the beach, with a nice root cellar for hiding campaign cash.
Just to be clear, Denton was not a major financial contributor to PHS. He was a contributor of hopes and dreams. However, you are right, he wrote 1 check the day he died that Chad claimed to be substantial.
Kate, if I remember correctly, the nonprofit was running the raffles, not the campaign. That is why PHS is paying the raffles.