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Arnold Diaz, who famously exposed the Drunken Negro Cookie baker in his engrossing Fox 5 SHAME segment, is back to send another victim into a shame spiral. This time it's the president of the United Homeless Organization, which sets up tables on seemingly every street corner soliciting donations for the homeless. If the operation had ever seemed a little shady to you, well, it probably is. Diaz digs up the questionable tax filing from the group's president, Steven Riley, and confronts him in Union Square about it. Things get shamelessly physical.
Diaz also learns that each table worker has to pay Riley $15-$25 per shift to man the donation table, and there are several shifts per day at approximately 50 tables around Manhattan, suggesting that Riley may pull in $1,500 a day, more than the charity reports. But what does the group actually do with the money? Diaz takes a hidden camera around to various donation tables asking that very question, and is told that the money goes to everything from soup kitchens to rehab programs. Some of it goes straight to the volunteers, many of whom used to be homeless.
The volunteers also say they provide the homeless with handy directories of various outreach centers, but, hilariously, none of the tables visited by Diaz actually had any extra copies of the directory to hand out. The organization's website is now down, but you can now find them in Diaz's Hall of Shame, "for deceiving donors about where their money goes."
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I prefer to give to the Salvation Army. They do good work with the homeless and downtrodden.
They're also great for Salvation Army them parties. Everyone goes to the Salvation Army and gets the most ridiculous outfit they can find for under $20.
I choose to donate to Goodwill instead. Salvation Army is great and all but they hate teh gays. They do a lot of lobbying against same-sex marraige. Not the kind of organization I want my money going to.
Straight from their website: "The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage.”
Freedom of religion allows people to believe that homosexuality is a sin. Jews and Muslims do as well, not just Christians. It seems the word 'hate' is thrown around by the left to smear anyone who doesn't agree with them or share their liberal worldview.
So I take it you don't approve of the.. homosexual lifestyle?
Too true. The Salvation Army may not approve of gay marriage but they still help gay people if they are in need. That's all that matters really.
"Primarily or exclusively same-sex"? So it's OK to dabble?
crap, I was trying to respond to ides_of_march.
You did, it's just the commenting system is wonky.
BTW, I didn't know that about the Salvation Army. I've always liked their charitable efforts, but I may have to start supporting Goodwill instead. Thanks for the heads up.
anytime! I used to donate to Salvation Army myself until I found that out.
it's all in the name -- they call themselves an army, apparently tasked with someone's or everyone's salvation.
That show is the only thing good on Fox
"just one penny..."
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you.
ha! nice.
"A whole strawpenny?"
aronold diaz should do something on bloomberg.
talk about, "shame, shame, shame!"
Thanks Arnie, but anyone with half a brain could have figured out what a scam this group is...
which is what, like 10% of our the population?
Yeah, you're right! Investigative journalism? Fuck him! He should really start blogging...
I see these guys every day and have always known they pay UHO to rent the water jugs... I just never knew where the money went. I still don't know.
Looks like these people are just glorified panhandlers protected by a tax id.
Keep fucking that chicken, Arnie! Wait, what...?
The principal behind their business model is that the guys with the table pay UHO $15-$25 for the table and the right to solicit in their name. That's $15-25 is all the money that goes to charity. The guys at the table soliciting the money pocket whatever is in the jug at the end of the day. So when they're badgering you have a heart and help the homeless, they're really just trying to get you to line their wallets. It is a complete scam and I do believe illegal.
No surprise, years ago, one of them told me that he rents the table from the org and whatever he receives in the jar he keeps since he is homeless. It is obvious that Riley is exploiting them. Unfortunately, i don't think anything can be done legally to stop their operations.
judging by the video it seems evident that a simple tax audit would blow the organization out of the water.
Tax Audit on a Cash business with no paper trail? There are no receipts of all the tables manned. There is no evidence that the reported income has been understated. Do you have any evidence?
All the gov needs is a few of the table workers to roll over on the boss and he's cooked for racketeering.
Perhaps, They can get him criminally for defrauding the Org's mission. But I don't see how they can prove he understated his income if there is no paper trail. Perhaps they can get him on the expenses if he has no invoices. But he would probably be fined on those unsubstantiated expenses. I have seen first hand other orgs that operate as he does and they haven't been shut down by neither the Manhattan DA office or the IRS. I hope they do shut them down but I highly doubt it.
Your right here, but you should understand that although he is unable to claim his income due to donations, he does have to provide receipts for every purchase he makes on behalf of the organization.
Which is why I stated perhaps they can fined him on his deductible expenses if he doesn't have the invoices but the most the IRS will do is fine him. He won't face any charges.
If the SEC can't catch obvious liars, I don't see the IRS or NY State government ever doing anything about this. Felix is right, they will continue to operate with no paper trail and that's that.
Perhaps because it seems everybody watches Fox, Arnie just severely affected their revenues.
I se these folks out around manhattan but never gave them a cent. I thouht it was obvious it was a scam. Most of these ppl brought their siutation upoin themselves. Let them suffer.
Actually some are homeless and have been exploited by Riley. Riley is using the rental fees for himself and not for the homeless. for some of them, manning the table is their only employment.
This stupid "Shame, Shame, Shame" series just represents the worst in TV news. It's knee-jerk and sensationalist - confronting someone on the street like they're a criminal without actually doing that much fact checking is lousy IMO.
Agreed. I always thought the be best defense in such a situation would be a good offense - whip out your own camera and start asking the reporter questions. "Do you feel this is legitimate form of reporting, or just a form of entertainment? Aren't there bigger corporate or government crimes you could be investigating, or is that a job for real reporters?" Keep going until they drive away, then post it on YouTube.
before i started reading gothamist, i thought it was a legitimate organization that had homeless people manning those tables, so i don't think the general population realizes it's a scam.
New Yorkers realized it's a scam. Also, for them to have the designation as a non-profit, which they do, they have to file reports with the government on where the money goes and how much is collected. Information on these are made publicly available. You can get information on those non-profits online. UHO has NEVER provided any of that information. They should have had their non-profit status taken away years ago.
Katie Martin, New York Philanthropic Advisory Service program manager for the Better Business Bureau, says UHO “refuses to send us information”; the last report the BBB filed on the organization was in 2003, and UHO failed to pass its Standards for Charity Accountability. “UHO doesn’t have a lot of information on where their money is going,” says Martin. “Personally and professionally, I would advise people to be cautious if donating to them.” If you want to help New York’s needy but find this whole thing fishy (it doesn’t help that UHO’s website is nonfunctional),
Read more: http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/i-new-york/34671/united-homeless-organization
reported on June 2008. This is old news for some.
I remember they used to (illegally) solicit on the subway trains poetry-slam style, until the MTA started cracking down. I assumed UHO wasn't entirely kosher based on that.
@rbeshenk right, cause i'm not a new yorker
i think arnie is recycling stories; this scam was exposed years ago.
the scam was exposed years ago, and years before that,its always new to ohio transplants.
over and over again. same old same old, keep exposing it, theres always gullible people willing to donate to 'charity'
what ever happened to the "Fight Back Women, Sign the Petition, We have a bill in Congress!"
they did the same thing, stand out there with a plastic water bottle every day!
I knew something was up with that organization when I saw two people working a table and a friend of theirs came up looking all excited into the jar.
"Ooooh there's a $20 in there!...and a $10, and a bunch of $5's!"
I knew he wasn't getting all excited about the money going to charity.
Wait a minute. He based that financial calculation, that there's more money going to the organization than it's reporting, on it having 50 tables. And he got that number by asking one of the table workers?
Why is an answer from one of them to one particular question trusted as fact, but everything else they say is inaccurate or deceptive?
Not really anything new... Even Guest of a Guest knew it was a scam almost 2 years ago.
http://guestofaguest.com/everything-you-need-to-know/whats-the-deal-with-the-uho/
I hope Cuomo is drafting the paperwork to yank their 501c3 status.
This is why we need a stronger, healthier Mafia.
If the scammers were white in suits and ties with an office near Wall Street, Arnold wouldn't even bother.
How about going after the Wall Street bailout Diaz? 900 billion taken from US taxpayers so far. No, Your too much of a pussy, so you fuck with street people and the poor. What'd they get...a half a mil??? Let them beg for the change. who give s fuck.
I always knew it! I never put my change in those jugs... seemed too fishy.
I saw Arnold Diaz once at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. I yelled out "Help Me, Howard!" ---- I confuse those two all the time. He didn't seem too pleased.
UHO is back in times square after two days being gone.
Today he is dressed in a clown outfit, which is very appropriate.
I've lived in Manhattan since '82 - these guys have been around since the late '80's - I always knew it was a scam. Why'd it take Arnold so long????