A Kentucky woman who founded a charitable nonprofit organization meant to host Ukrainian orphans in the U.S. was sentenced on Wednesday in a Maine federal court for visa fraud and spending over $120,000 of donations on personal expenses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine.
Colleen Holt-Thompson, 58, founder of the Kentucky-based nonprofit “Host Ukraine,” was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Portland to three years of probation and ordered to pay $172,158 in restitution.
Holt-Thompson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud and tax evasion in January.
According to court records, Holt-Thompson founded Host Ukraine in 2015, and served as the nonprofit’s executive director.
The organization connected children living as orphans in Ukraine with American host families to live in the U.S. for short periods over the summer or winter holidays.
In order to obtain U.S. non-immigrant visas for the Ukrainian orphans from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Host Ukraine was required to obtain permission from the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy.
Federal prosecutors alleged that between 2015 and 2019, Holt-Thompson obtained U.S. non-immigrant visas for Ukrainian orphans.
Holt-Thompson would provide “placeholder names” of American families who had not agreed to host the orphans to the Ukrainian Ministry, but would find actual host families for the Ukrainian children before they traveled to the U.S., prosecutors said.
A coconspirator living in Maine was alleged to have served as Host Ukraine’s “Northeast contact” for finding the placeholder families, and for recruiting families to serve as actual host families for the orphans who traveled to the U.S. with the fraudulently obtained visas.
Host Ukraine charged families a $3,000 fee to host an orphan, and also collected donations.
Holt-Thompson was accused of spending approximately $127,610 from the nonprofit’s checking account in order to pay personal expenses and credit card bills in 2016, and of failing to report the money spent on her personal expenses on the tax return she and her husband filed.
She also allegedly failed to file a tax return for Host Ukraine.
Small potatoes compared to the $billions in graft given to that country with kickbacks for our own political hacks.
One day we may know where all this $$$ is going. This is a start.
“Holt-Thompson was accused of spending approximately $127,610 from the nonprofit’s checking account in order to pay personal expenses and credit card bills in 2016, and of failing to report the money spent on her personal expenses on the tax return she and her husband filed.
She also allegedly failed to file a tax return for Host Ukraine.”
Who does she think she is: a Biden?
If by the time you reach Adulthood you haven’t figured out ” That Non-Profits are ALL about the Profit ” , Well you are naive to say the least…. Never trust anyone with a hyphenated last name is always a safe bet….