As the President of National Relief Charities, I am responding to the December 4, 2013 story written by Dr. Dean Chavers. I appreciate that some of the facts included in Dr. Chavers’ story are correct. NRC has had an experience that sadly is experienced by many organizations and individuals – trust placed in someone was betrayed. Since learning of the fraud and deception committed by Brian Brown and the Charity One organization, NRC engaged legal counsel to conduct an investigation, alerted the FBI and cooperated with their investigation, and filed a civil complaint with the court system in Texas where we are headquartered. Progress has been made. The FBI made its first arrest and indictment in the case (Brian Brown), and the court issued a judgment ordering the defendants associated with Charity One to repay the grant to NRC, with interest and legal fees. We continue to work with state and federal authorities to recover the funds. Fortunately, this fraud did not disrupt our scholarships and other humanitarian services on the 65 reservations we serve in 11 states.

Although the grant funds awarded to Charity One were misused, an independent audit of all grants supported by NRC resulted in no performance issues being identified with any other grant. Readers should know that since the Charity One grant in 2006 NRC has strengthened our own internal controls and safeguards. Every Board member that started the Charity One grant has been removed, and none are now affiliated with NRC in any way. Six new members have joined NRC’s Board of Directors since that time. We established a Finance and Audit Committee to provide independent oversight of NRC’s finances.. Other safeguards we’ve put in place include undergoing an independent organizational risk assessment and adopting best practices such as hiring a nationally recognized auditing firm to annually review our finances and a Chief Financial Officer.

Some of the misinformation in Dr. Chavers’ story must be clarified:  NRC paid $350,000 to the State of Pennsylvania as a voluntary settlement to end a lengthy and costly lawsuit that occurred 20 years ago. The settlement agreement states there was no finding of wrongdoing by NRC. Our request that the settlement be used to assist tribes already receiving services from NRC was honored by the state. At no time during this litigation did legal expenses exceed services to the reservations. In 1995, NRC provided about $1 million worth of support to the 15+ reservations served at the time – today NRC provides more than $30 million in support that benefits 250,000 Native Americans annually. NRC has not had an office in Oregon for several years and has never owned an airplane. Our organization is headquartered in Sherman, Texas. When NRC opened our Phoenix program office and distribution center, our South Dakota program office and distribution center also remained open. For accurate and up-to-date information on NRC, we invite readers to review our 2012 annual report and form 990 on our website at www.nrcprograms.org. You may also contact us at 800-416-8102 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions

 

Robbi Rice Dietrich, President, National Relief Charities