California Swimming 501(C)3 Has Dubious Credentials
Though it claims to help underprivileged kids learn to swim, One with the Ocean doesn't seem to do much of anything.
Earlier this month, I featured the non-profit KidSide; while that 501 (C)3 boasts a collection of Florida legal power-brokers, it raised less than $200,000 in its last year and the money then primarily went to advertising, salaries, rent, and more.
Very little, if any, went to charitable purposes.
It’s not the only relatively small non-profit to receive attention recently for doing the wrong thing.
In 2020, the principals of On Your Feet Inc. were sentenced to jail after using their small non-profit to cheat on their taxes.
According to plea agreements, Geraldine and Clayton Hill admitted they used lies and false promises to induce prominent companies to donate valuable goods to the Hills’ 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization, known as On Your Feet, Inc., also known as Family Resource Center. Instead of using all the clothing and other donations to help the down-on-their luck get back on their feet, as their charity’s name suggested, or to provide resources for families, the Hills brazenly sold many donated goods for cash to be resold at discount outlets, and pocketed the proceeds. By preying on the generosity of others, they managed to get valuable goods at no cost and tax-free, which they resold for their personal benefit. What is more, the Hills used the tax-exempt charity as their personal bank account and evaded their own tax obligations, cheating the IRS by failing to pay over $50,000 in taxes on over a million dollars in ill-gotten gains from their fraud.
According to court documents, On Your Feet, Inc. claimed to “provid[e] assistance to low-income families and individuals in need to better their living conditions and quality of life.” Beginning at least as early as March 2009, however, the Hills conspired to fraudulently obtain charitable donations of clothing and other items from multiple companies by falsely promising and certifying that they would not to sell the merchandise for profit. The Hills violated those promises, knowingly reselling donated merchandise and using the proceeds from selling donated items to financially support themselves, their family members and other associates.
The head of a non-profit in Cincinnati went to jail in 2021 after he used proceeds to fund his lifestyle.
The founder, owner, CEO and president of a Cincinnati nonprofit was sentenced to four years in prison for using thousands of dollars for personal expenses instead of paying payroll taxes, according to the Department of Justice.
Barry Rene Isaacs, 35, used funds from Hope 4 Change to pay for clothing, massages, beauty care, travel and personal vehicles for him and his family, a news release from the DOJ states.
Hope 4 Change provided housing and care for adults with developmental disabilities, drug addiction problems, and mental disorders. The agency employed between 120 and 180 people in 2013 and 2014.
The head of a Nebraska non-profit was charged in 2021 with misusing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds.
The director of a local nonprofit news organization faces Nebraska's first federal criminal charges connected to the Paycheck Protection Program.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors charged M.A. Yah, who runs The Heartland News, with bank fraud.
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According to the indictment, prosecutors accuse Yah of submitting a fake PPP loan application on behalf of The Heartland News. The feds say Yah submitted a fraudulent 2019 IRS Form 941 (Employer’s Quarterly Tax Return) four times as supporting documentation in the loan application.
Back in 2014, I exposed Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Chicago, a non-profit which claimed to help poor and minority folks secure financing along with revitalizing poor neighborhoods.
During my research I spoke with an NHS attorney.
“We’re the good guys,” the attorney screamed. The charity certainly appears to be. On the surface, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago Inc. is a parochial, garden-variety liberal nonprofit located in the Windy City. But if you look deeper you find that NHS runs an empire of sorts whose power extends beyond its home base, and that it is deeply tied to the world of Saul Alinsky-inspired radical left-wing community organizing and the corruption that accompanies it.
Indeed, those with nefarious purposes can use the veneer of a non-profit to distract attention.
After all, how many people are going to challenge someone whose life’s work is helping underprivileged people get home loans, get education, or help the disabled?
On the surface, the start-up non-profit One with the Ocean (OWO), does something noble as well.
They help, according to the website, clean up beaches, provide swim lessons in the inner cities, and other swimming activities.
OWO has one employee: its founder and President Bryan Mineo.
The charity raised only approximately $200,000 in 2021 and about seventy-five percent of that went to Mineo’s salary.
Mineo claimed that his salary, about $150,000 yearly, is typical for the head of a start-up in a deposition.
In that deposition, Mineo, who did not respond to a phone call and email for comment, claimed that his salary falls in line with many non-profits of his size, but in fact, his salary falls in line with the salaries of leaders of much bigger non-profits.
All 501 © 3s, which is non-profit tax code, are required to make their tax returns publicly available; in those tax returns, the salaries of all employees are listed.
The website Guidestar makes those tax returns available.
The North Carolina non-profit, Prevent Child Abuse, which boasts more than $2 million in charitable receipts for its last tax returns also showed its CEO only made $100,000 per year.
Neighborhood Housing Services of South Shore, in Massachusetts, which is similar to the NHS I mentioned, boasts about $2.5 million in charitable receipts and its top employee made approximately $180,000.
The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which brought in over $20 million, showed its top employee making less than $100,000 per year.
Mineo’s exorbitant salary is only one red flag for this non-profit.
According to a prominent swim coach, Mineo is a fraud.
I spoke with Gerry Rodrigues, a well known swimming instructor.
Rodrigues told me he became familiar with Mineo several years ago when several people reached out to him, believing that Mineo had plagiarized Rodriques’ work in well-known swimming magazines.
After investigating, Rodrigues told me he knew that Mineo was lifting other people’s work because Mineo was talking about deep complicated concepts requiring a great deal of swimming background.
“Of which he had none,” Rodrigues told me.
Rodriguez was blunt that Mineo’s experience in swimming is very limited and much of his boasting is exaggerated or made up.
After he reached out to several magazines, Rodrigues told me that Mineo’s work stopped being published but the desired effect had already been produced.
By being featured in these magazines, Gerry told me, Mineo reached a level of gravitas necessary to start OWO.
I also spoke to Ella Alderete. She participated in a long distance swim sponsored by OWO. She told me that not only was the swim designed unsafely but Mineo was more worried about a future client than the swimmers’ safety.
She said there are supposed to be people from OWO on the front, side and back of the swimmers to assure safety.
She was near the back when she started to feel weak. With no one behind her, she was on her own to try and get back.
She told me that she nearly drowned before finally making it back to the beach.
On the beach, she saw Mineo speaking with a client, rather than watching the swim.
She said she had been friends with Mineo prior to this incident.
Also, the activities which OWO claims to do don’t seem to amount to much.
Once a year, OWO claims to do a beach clean up. The put together some photos on its website.
In the deposition, Mineo said the beach clean up was unlikely to happen in 2021.
Though Mineo claimed in the deposition, taken in late 2021, that there would be a beach clean up that year, there is no evidence one occurred.
On top of this, while he made bold claims about its effectiveness, there is scant evidence about how much was actually cleaned up.
Indeed, according to Mineo, each person is station approximately two miles from each other during each of these clean ups; as such, no one can actually verify how much of the beach was cleaned up during any of the beach clean ups he claims to have done.
Finally, play in the waves, a program to provide swim lessons to kids in the inner city, amounted to eight one hour sessions in 2020.
It seems that besides providing its founder an exorbitant salary OWO does very little, if anything.
Update:
After the article was published, I was contacted by Mr. Mineo’s attorney, claiming that I misrepresented several parts of the article, specifically his salary, which his attorney said was $89,339
