Scam artist collecting money gets caught

the scene was tense here at union square in manhattan where the united homeless organization uho was holding a meeting on the sidewalk we'd come to ask questions of stephen riley the charity's founder and president why can't you answer the questions mr riley you're soliciting from the public don't you owe people an explanation uh's fundraising tables are a familiar site around new york city lots of people drop dollar bills and spare change into the plastic jugs many have no idea what that money is used for every day when i see them i give them a dollar but i really never know where it went if they're good people they'll donate it to the homeless but i don't believe it goes to the homeless sometimes i wonder where that money goes if you ask the workers at the charities tables where the money goes as we did recently with a hidden camera you get a lot of misleading answers that money goes to uh seat kitchens and pantries and three haircuts the organization right this is a fundraising emergency cast assistance to other homeless people substance abuse we often try to get out drugs and alcohol we help people out and give food and referrals but the uh doesn't have any soup kitchens cash assistance or substance abuse programs of its own we had one basic question where does the money go the truth is the money in the jugs gets split some of it goes to the table workers most of whom say they are or were homeless but what you may not know is that each worker has to pay the charity a fee of 15 to 25 per shift just to use a table what is uh's president doing with those fees i don't want to do that you're not providing any services to the homeless you're lying to people who are giving their donations okay well i'll wait for you riley said he was in the middle of a meeting and too busy to answer my questions i said i'd wait but the mood got uglier we were pushed and shut then someone in the crowd grabbed our camera yanked it off our photographer's shoulder and onto the ground a cop on the scene called for backup and within moments two police fans arrived to restore order the uh workers accused us of harassing them i'm not harassing you i'm in him he's not homeless you're not homeless with the police there to prevent another attack i was able to try again to get some answers how about your tax returns mr riley you want to answer questions about your tax returns united homeless organizations 2007 tax returns the latest filed list steve reilly's home in the bronx as its headquarters the charity reported income from fees of almost ninety eight thousand dollars it claimed expenses of a hundred three thousand according to the returns riley as president got zero compensation no money but the biggest expense listed is 42 000 for stipends no explanation of what that is what about these stipends where did the stipends go mr riley to your pocket the second largest expense listed is automobile 24 thousand dollars fox five has learned that at least one vehicle's title was transferred from the charity to stephen riley's name why'd you transfer a uho vehicle into your name mr riley then there's the question of whether the tax returns are accurate are you reporting all the money you get mr riley the united homeless organization has about 50 tables around manhattan according to one of its workers if each table worker has to pay uho 15 per shift and there's two to three ships per day that's at least fifteen hundred dollars a day more than half a million dollars a year going to uho a lot more income than the charities reporting right before christmas time i tried to attack homeless people for helping themselves exploitation exploitation but some would say it's stephen riley who's exploiting the public's desire to help the homeless profiteering from a system of organized panhandling he created the charities website says uho provides food contact information and referrals to various housing organizations to thousands of people 365 days a year but there's no food at the tables most of the time we don't ask about food what we really do is send them to places uho's homeless directory does contain contact and referral information the problem is we visited many tables and none of them had any extra directories to give out did you get anyone these brochures do you um give those out their sheets out no no but we get and this really needs to be updated riley what do you have to hide mr riley why don't you answer the questions after the meeting ended this past weekend uh's president quickly walked away surrounded by workers who didn't want us talking to their leader you're soliciting the public you owe them an explanation of what you're doing with the money you get mr riley not the table workers use so into our fox 5 hall of shame we induct the united homeless organization and its president stephen riley for deceiving donors about where their money really goes if you'd like to donate to a charity other than uho to help the homeless on our website you'll find a list of organizations that provide direct services such as shelter food and clothing just go to myfoxny.com click on the shame link at the top of the page while you're there you can also submit a story idea for us or call us at one eight seven seven tell fox five i'm arnold diaz fox 5 news

Channel: PortRichmondCatholic

Views: 1,955,534

Rating: 4.5907989 out of 5

Keywords: Scam, artist, collecting, money, gets, caught

Id: vM2I7hiPZRQ

Length: 6min 46sec (406 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 11 2009