http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 001/NEWS01

Article published Aug 5, 2006
Charity leader charged with fraud
Carmine Marvin allegedly took about $130,000, FDLE says

BY JOE CALLAHAN
STAR-BANNER

OCALA -
Carmine Marvin, a once-trusted Good Samaritan, was arrested Friday in the theft of about $130,000 in cash, equipment, cars and real estate earmarked for destitute Marion County residents.

Marvin, who once worked for Central Florida Community Action Agency and later created his own Marion Community of Caring charitable group, received $72,000 in two years from a Star-Banner charitable agency called Community With a Heart (CWAH), much of which he now stands accused of pocketing.

He walked into the Marion County Jail lobby at 9:30 a.m. on Friday to surrender to Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents, two hours after the lawmen went to his Hawks Point home in Belleview with an arrest warrant.

Marvin had already left for work at a Clermont construction site before the agents arrived at his home at 10820 S.E. 43rd Ave. His wife, Joann Marie Marvin, told agents where her husband had gone and offered a poignant - and given her husband's former charitable work - ironic comment.

"If you arrest him, we'll be homeless," she said.

Marvin, 46, was charged with one count of organized fraud, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Also charged with organized fraud was Marvin's sister, Catherine Marvin Thompson, 45, of 5111 S.E. 29th St., Apt. B. Agents picked her up shortly after 7 a.m., lead FDLE investigator John Miller said.

Marvin and Thompson could not be reached for comment. They both posted $10,000 bail and left the jail.

"It sickens me to think he would do this to all these people," said Gary Linn, executive director of Interfaith Emergency Services and co-chairman of the CWAH board. "It really is hard to believe it."

A 19-page affidavit that the FDLE used to obtain the arrest warrants states that Marvin admitted to using false information to obtain CWAH funding between January 2004 and March of this year.

Marvin said he falsified applications for charitable funds and forged names to "cut out the red tape" to help illegal immigrants from Mexico, according to Miller's report. The agent said the five-month investigation turned up no evidence that Marvin spent any of the money on illegal immigrants.

According to the arrest affidavit, investigators allege:

¥ in addition to obtaining CWAH funds through fraud, Marvin also sold computers - given to him on behalf of the Community Action Agency - from the trunk of his car for cash and at yard sales at his former Summerfield home.

¥ he received two vehicles last fall from the Marion County Sheriff's Office to be repaired for Hurricane Katrina victims. Instead, he put the vehicles up for sale from his front yard, netting a total of $3,000.

¥ Marvin acquired a quit claim property deed from Lisa Surrency Abell after her home burned to the ground, and she couldn't afford the fee to remove the debris. She gave him $2,200 of her insurance settlement and signed the property over to Marvin, who said he would take care of the debris. Marvin told Abell that the Community Action Agency could use the property for a domestic violence shelter. He promised to give her a donation certificate for tax purposes and place a plaque in the shelter in memory of her husband, who died in 1999.

Instead, he sold the property for $7,500 and kept the money.

Miller said agents analyzed Marvin's personal and charitable agency bank accounts - both with SunTrust - and believe he deposited $129,172 in ill-gotten gains during the time period in question.

Altogether, the investigation revealed that Marvin received $93,000 in charitable donations during that period. Of the $93,000, $72,000 was from CWAH. Only $7,721 was actually spent on people in need, according to the FDLE.

In addition, Marvin netted $29,700 from the sale of computers, vehicles and other goods donated for charity that was deposited in his personal account.

Marvin also is accused of obtaining $6,100 worth of construction materials that he charged on the Community Action Agency's credit card, for an instructional class to help people find jobs.

The classes were never held and the agency never received the construction materials. Marvin also netted another $9,700 from the property transaction involving Abell, reports state.

At the time, his salary from the Community Action Agency was $27,500.

Miller also detailed how Marvin and his sister were able to take donations and convert them to cash, hoping to create a trail that would seem legitimate. Miller wrote that after Marvin received checks to help needy families, he would deposit them into one of his accounts.

He then wrote checks intended for rental assistance. He is accused of paying a $50 fee to people who agreed to cash the checks and hand the difference back to him in cash. Miller said Marvin's sister helped him find more than a dozen people to cash the checks.

"She solicited people to cash the checks," said Miller, adding that those people are not being investigated as part of the scheme because they didn't know why they were cashing the checks.

The alleged scheme began to unravel early this year when Central Florida Community Action Agency contacted the Florida Department of Community Affairs about possible financial irregularities. That's when the FDLE got involved.

A Star-Banner investigation in May found that only three of 58 families that Marvin had solicited charitable donations for through CWAH could be verified.

Over the last two CWAH campaigns, which raised a total of $331,000, Marvin received $72,000 - nearly 22 percent of all CWAH funds in the past two years - to help them with rent, utilities and other needs.

Executive Editor Robyn Tomlin said Friday the case now must work its way through the court system before the Star-Banner can put it behind them.

"This is sort of a saga that's full of chapters and this is just another chapter," she said.

CWAH consists of a board of directors made up of representatives from an array of organizations, including the Salvation Army, United Way, the state Department of Children & Families and Marion County Senior Services, among others.

As a group, officials from those agencies decide who gets funding.

Since its inception in 1987, CWAH has raised more than $1.4 million in cash donations and a total of more than $5 million when in-kind contributions of cars, goods and services are counted.

Managing Editor Tom McNiff, a co-chairman of the CWAH board, said the agency continues to examine its operating practices to better help the community.

"Community With a Heart continues to restructure its policies, procedures and by-laws to ensure that this doesn't happen again," McNiff said.

____
Joe Callahan may be reached at joe.callahan@starbanner.com or (352) 867-4113.