RICHMOND, Va. – A federal grand jury returned an indictment earlier this month charging a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina man with devising and executing a scheme to defraud the public through his registration and operation of a charity that purported to provide services and support to homeless and destitute veterans.
According to the indictment, James W. Arehart, 45, was a Virginia resident, and employed full-time as a government contractor, when he registered a 501(c)(3) organization in April 2018 with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) named “Providing Hope VA.” Arehart also registered this entity in South Carolina as a charitable organization, and thereafter established a social media and online presence for the charity—including a Facebook page and website. Arehart allegedly described Providing Hope to the public as a charity whose “direct mission” was to help homeless and destitute veterans by establishing the “Providing Hope Center,” which was to be a freestanding facility that offered housing, job training, and other support to veterans. Providing Hope’s fundraising method is alleged to have involved the advertisement and sale of raffle tickets for high-end vehicles. Arehart allegedly purchased these vehicles, then raffled them off in livestreamed videos on Facebook.
Between 2018 and August of 2021, it is alleged that Arehart’s raffle sales generated more than $9 million in proceeds—all of which flowed into and through Providing Hope’s bank account, over which Arehart...
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