Leonard Mac McQuown is at it again. Today he and his sidekick, Vickie James, embarked on yet another "walk" across America vowing to do 3,000 in a year from Florida to San Francisco. For anyone who has followed McQuown over the past few years knows that his walks are questionable to say the least.
A Florida news outlet wrote a piece of McQuown today and did a video interview of him which left McQuown stumbling for answers for some hard questions. The same questions that have been asked of him for YEARS. Starting with transparency of his donations.
Veterans accuse local former Marine walking across U.S. of fraud. Where's the money going? http://t.co/L6NTWRFntZ pic.twitter.com/PyQTnOoKT7
— News 13 (@MyNews13) May 5, 2015
McQuown has a walking companion this time around. Her name is Vickie James. In the video interview, Vickie said that they needed money to do their walk and rely on "gifts". She was careful to word her statement, as anyone soliciting donations in Florida must register with the Department of Agriculture as McQuown is very well aware, having been interviewed by the Department of Agriculture regarding solicitation of donations.
McQuown told the interviewer that he did indeed make a $350 donation to Raven's Outreach when they had talked to Raven's Outreach that morning and were told via statement that he did NOT make a donation. McQuown went on to say that Operation Foot kept records, however, from his own website last year he stated:
"Documentation and/or receipts of monies raised in the year of 2013 through Operation Veteran Storm DO NOT EXIST. The testimonies from those assisted through "Operation Veteran Storm" which are shown above is the proof that these deeds were done through trial and error I have learned a better way to keep official records of funds raised. Starting in January 2014 any and all funds raised will have with them official receipts and documentation."
McQuown stopped giving out his walking route because he was terrified that the authorities there would be notified. Again, NO TRANSPARENCY. If he were not committing fraud, he would be happy to tell exactly where he was and EXACTLY WHERE THE MONEY WAS BEING DONATED.
When asked if there any veteran organizations he could name supporting his walk, McQuown said no.
That is because his walk has NOT benefited any veterans organizations in the past and it is very unlikely that it will benefit anyone in the future, except Mac's wallet.
TRUST that we will be following McQuown as he frauds across America.
Make sure to watch the video. It's priceless.
http://mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/video.html?clip=http://static.cfnews13.com/newsvideo/cfn/vet-walk-interview-full.f4v&vtitle=Full%20interview%3A%20Leonard%20McQuown%20on%20walk%2C%20money%20collected
Thank you channel 13 for your hard questions. He is not wanted in the Veterans of Foreign Wars, they will not support him if they know. We have not contacted all the smaller posts, but will work to get the word out. He should not be using our VFW name in his travels. He does NOT have VA benefits, he is NOT in the VA system that is what you get when you do not serve honorably. I am a VFW Auxiliary officer and will do my best to protect our veterans from this scammer. He remained hidden when I tried to meet him in person while in Meridian MS and then he blocked me from private messaging on FB and blocked my phone calls. He knew he was wrong.
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