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Purchase Price for Bosworth Raffle Land: $424,000

Nathan Fluit and other honest folks whom Preventive Health Strategies stiffed on thousand-dollar raffle tickets are still waiting for an honest response from Annette Bosworth and her husband/non-profit partner Chad Haber on when PHS might issue refunds on the Moody County land raffle that never was.

I hate to throw cold water on anyone's hopes for justice, but those refunds might be a long time coming. I've heard conflicting reports on how many tickets Bosworth and Haber sold: maybe 250, maybe just 30. But even if it was 250, it wasn't enough to pay for the land.

According to the purchase agreement, Preventive Health Strategies bought the southeastern 1/4 of Section 35-106-49, Moody County, South Dakota, for $424,000.

clip from purchase agreement, Moody County land for Preventive Health Strategies raffle, signed April 18, 2012
clip from purchase agreement, Moody County land for Preventive Health Strategies raffle, signed April 18, 2012

Preventive Health Strategies signed this purchase agreement on April 18, 2012, just six days after raffling off a portion of Annette Bosworth's family farm in Aurora County. PHS advertised the southern half of this quarter for raffle, with an alternative cash prize for the Moody County land of $250,000. Apparently the hope was to raffle off the first 75 acres, make back the initial investment, then raffle off the other half of the quarter for pure profit.

But let's do some math on what happened:

  1. By April 12, 2012, Chad Haber and Annette Bosworth raked in $500,000 in their first land raffle. That Aurora County prize was family land, so Haber and Bosworth may not have had any previous purchase price to recoup.
  2. Six days later, they committed $424,000 to another land purchase.
  3. That leaves just $76,000 in the kitty to do the actual medical mission work of Preventive Health Strategies.
  4. PHS's 990 form says PHS spent $317,087.25 on medication alone in 2011.
  5. Exercising classic Ponzi-logic, Haber and Bosworth gambled $107,000 more on a land purchase than they spent on medicine to directly serve patients the year before.
  6. At best, had they sold 500 tickets, PHS would have gotten an 18% return on this raffle.
  7. PHS made deals with at least one other entity, FIRE Missions of Michigan, to help sell tickets and split proceeds, reducing PHS's slim return even further.
  8. They sold no more than 250 tickets, not enough to recover 60% of their loss on the land, let alone help PHS offer more real services.
  9. If Chad and Annette had left the country for Haiti on April 13, 2012, they'd have had $500,000 in their pockets to help sick kids.
  10. Instead, even if we let them leave the country without refunding the Moody County raffle tickets, Haber and Bosworth would make off with no more than $326,000.

BosworthRideConclusion: even if the Preventive Health Strategies raffles have been complete scams (and we haven't even factored in the Harley motorcycles for which they sold tickets in Sturgis last year but which have mysteriously disappeared... where? into Annette's garage?), Haber and Bosworth can't even make their scam math add up.

And now that ticketholders are speaking up and the press is watching, paying back those failed raffle tickets and suffering a loss of reputation that should put the kibosh on any future PHS raffles will probably set them back to zero.

Annette, let me speak as your financial advisor: cut the crap. Quit selling raffle tickets. Close Preventive Health Strategies. Tell Chad no more long trips to Haiti. Quit running around the state pretending to be a Republican Senate candidate. Just go to your clinic every day and do the job you're good at. You may not know math, but you know medicine.

Besides, I hear honest doctors can make good money.

What's next in the Chad and Annette Traveling Medicine Show? Who knows?

4 Comments

  1. grudznick 2013.11.18

    That, Mr. H, is good math! Well put forth.

  2. Roger Cornelius 2013.11.18

    Just think, if these grifters could control themselves they would have money ahead.

    That is their problem, they can't stop.

  3. Rorschach 2013.11.18

    Where's the criminal investigation on this? Where are the stories from everyone besides KDLT? Is there some blackout on legitimate news that I don't know about?

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.11.19

    [Editor's note: I appreciate tips through the Contact form, but I won't publish anonymous comments.]

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