When they hear the words “American veterans,” many people reach for their checkbooks. That helps explain why Mitch Gold and several associates created charities whose names started with that magic phrase. Here are some examples:
American Veterans Assistance Council: A Gold client from mid-1988 through the early ’90s, it was formed by Gold’s business partner and headed by Gold’s brother-in-law.
American Veterans Assistance Foundation: A business name for Emmanuel Outreach Ministries, created in 2000 when Adam Cohen, a Gold subcontractor and older brother of Gold’s top protégé, J.P. Cohen, started telemarketing for the Fullerton ministry.
American Veterans Coalition: Originally a business name for the Abundant Life Foundation, a Gold client starting in 1999; incorporated 2002 in Washington state. Headed by Gig Harbor, Wash., charity entrepreneur Robert M. Friend Jr.
American Veterans Council: A business name beginning in 1999 for Timothy Lyons’ Costa Mesa fundraising business. Controlled by Gabriel Sanchez. Sanchez was a former Gold client, and Lyons was a onetime Gold subcontractor. Both men are serving 15-year prison sentences for fraud.
American Veterans Help Fund: A business name for Gabriel Sanchez’s First Church of Life in Huntington Beach, formed in 1994. Sanchez also controlled the U.S. Veterans League.
American Veterans Network: A business name since 1994 for Shiloh International Ministries in La Verne, a longtime Gold client.
American Veterans Relief Foundation: Incorporated in 2001 in Santa Ana by Michael Kowalsky, a former Gold client. Managed until mid-2005 by onetime Gold aide and ex-felon Joe Shambaugh.
American Veterans Relief Fund: A Gold client in the late 1990s. Headed by Dallas resident Marvin Cherna, who was later convicted of mail fraud for looting the charity.
American War Veterans: A business name of Regular American Veterans, a Gold client in the late 1990s.
Sources: Internal Revenue Service, Federal Trade Commission v. Gold, U.S. v. Gold, The Register