Former executive director of VFW of Ohio Charities pleads guilty in charitable theft case
MARYSVILLE — The former leader of a statewide veterans charity pleaded guilty today in connection with the theft of more than $35,000 from a central Ohio VFW post, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today.
“This guy turned a position of honor into a tool for theft, and chose greed over duty,” Yost said. “He betrayed a charity’s mission and the veterans it was meant to serve. Our veterans deserve better.”
Todd Reveron, former executive director of the nonprofit Veterans of Foreign Wars of Ohio Charities, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of receiving stolen property in Union County Common Pleas Court. The VFW of Ohio Charities was created in 2003 to help VFW locations generate charitable dollars to aid needy veterans in their communities.
The charge against Reveron stemmed from an investigation by the attorney general’s Charitable Law Section, which found that $35,007.30 had been siphoned from VFW Post 4044’s charitable accounts through a check-writing scheme between October 2017 and September 2019.
In January, Reveron’s co-conspirator, Guy Andonian, pleaded guilty to telecommunications fraud, a third-degree felony, and was sentenced to five years of community control and ordered to pay restitution. Andonian had been the quartermaster of Post 4044.
The two began their criminal activity, investigators discovered, after being connected through the VFW network. Andonian would write checks from the post’s charitable accounts with the agreement that Reveron would deposit them into his own personal or business bank accounts, then split the money with Andonian.
Reveron was sentenced to three years of community control and a $1,000 fine.
In addition to investigating the case, Yost’s Charitable Law Section prosecuted it at the request of Union County Prosecutor Dave Phillips.
Ohioans who suspect misuse of charitable funds or fraudulent fundraising activities should contact the Ohio Attorney General’s Office at 800-282-0515 or charitable.ohioago.gov.
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