Nonprofit says it collected over $1.5m for D.C.-bound convoy. Director pleaded guilty to fraud.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

A nonprofit says it collected over $1.5 million for the D.C.-region bound "People's Convoy." Its director recently pleaded guilty to fraud.

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@stevesthompson
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@EricLBerger

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A nonprofit says it collected over $1.5 million for a D.C.-region-bound truck convoy. Its director recently pleaded guilty to fraud.

By Steve Thompson, Ellie Silverman and Eric Berger
Yesterday at 1:23 p.m. EST



Hundreds of supporters gathered to cheer on the "People’s Convoy" from an overpass in Eureka, Mo., on March 1 as the caravan made its way from California to the D.C. area. (Eric Berger for The Washington Post)

At a rally point near the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Tex., as the wind whipped American flags atop an 18-wheeler behind her, a Southern California lawyer and anti-vaccine activist named Leigh Dundas exhorted a crowd to make donations. ... “We’re going to be doing a little altar call up here. A hundred percent of that cash is going back into the boys’ pockets for the next fuel stop,” Dundas told onlookers and live-stream viewers, encouraging them to give online to the “People’s Convoy,” a U.S.-based group of activists opposed to vaccine mandates and inspired by the self-styled “Freedom Convoy” that occupied Canada’s capital for weeks.

The group set a goal of $5 million to fuel its fight and claimed to have collected $1.5 million by Monday, eliciting growing support across the country from people who’ve cheered at rallies, demonstrated from chilly highway overpasses, and taken to social media to profess a loss of faith in government, politicians, media and other institutions they paint as corrupt and out of touch. ... They want to do something, so they give. In this case, to the AFCLF Foundation, which launched last year and names as its executive director a Texas woman named Pamela Milacek, whose arrest is sought, records show, by authorities who allege she violated the terms of her community supervision after pleading guilty to felony fraud and exploitation charges in 2020.

Leaders pledge that the dollars collected by the organization, whose initials stand for the American Foundation for Civil Liberties and Freedom, will go to the truckers and organizing for the convoy. It’s part of a coalition of emerging social media influencers and groups harnessing the grievance of disgruntled voters, many of whom profess a belief in the claim, comprehensively dismantled in courtrooms across the country, that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump. {snip} The address listed by the foundation is a co-working space in Boston. A lawyer who lives in California, Christopher Marston, is listed in the foundation’s incorporation paperwork as its president, secretary and treasurer.

{snip}

The AFCLF’s website and incorporation paperwork give its address as the 8th floor of 10 Post Office Square in Boston, which is a co-working space and address that businesses can use to put on “business cards, licensing, website, etc.,” for a promotional rate of $80 per month, according to advertising for the space. It’s the same address Marston gives as headquarters for his firm Exemplar Law, which he started in 2005 just after graduating from law school. ... A website for the firm and a constellation of business entities Marston calls Exemplar Companies describes a “national footprint” with nine satellite locations. The same phone number is listed for all of them, and it goes to an answering service.

{snip}

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https://wapo.st/3vHKlvM

By Steve Thompson
Steve Thompson writes about government and politics in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia. Before joining The Washington Post in 2018, he was an investigative reporter for the Dallas Morning News. He started in journalism as a police reporter at the St. Petersburg Times. Twitter https://twitter.com/stevesthompson

By Ellie Silverman
Ellie Silverman covers protest movements, activism and local news. At The Post, she has also covered local crime and courts. She has previously reported on retail, breaking news and general assignment stories for the Philadelphia Inquirer, her hometown paper. She graduated from the University of Maryland, where she reported for the Diamondback. Twitter https://twitter.com/esilverman11

[3Hotdogs]

1. Well, at least the money isn't going to the assholes driving the trucks.