Dear Sir,
It is understood that there is a substantial, inherent conflict of interest within your office of contemporaneously advising and advocating for those of whom contract with the State of Michigan to care for children in need.
In the same breath I ask you to take time out of your campaign to make the Charitable Section of your office sing for its supper. By that I mean light a fire under the arses of your Assistant Attorneys General and do something about these child, and for the purposes of this story, adult caregiving, non-profits' practice of human usury, or rather human trafficking.
This has been going on for decades with an absolutely intentional hoodwinked culture within the Attorney General's Office. I can further my disdain of your lack of leadership to point a finger to the Madame Maura Corrigan, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice and current Director of Department of Human Services for turning up her nose to the rampant fraud, waste and abuse within her Department...and the courts.
Children, under your watch, under the auspices of the State, are raped, beaten, tortured and killed, yet you do nothing about it.
If you are in need of further documentation of non-profit, "charitable" organizations enslaving and torturing the most vulnerable of our society for a pretty, non-taxable penny, please, feel free to look into my filings within your office or just google my name.
You suck and so does the Director of Department of Human Services.
Much love,
Beverly Tran
Woman investigated for using special needs children to sell candy in nonprofit scam
Fox 2 News Headlines
DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (WJBK) -
A Dearborn Heights woman is under investigation for using special needs children she took legal guardianship to sell candy for what appears to be a fake nonprofit.
Children trapped for so long, they are now adults, going on for 20 years. The victims don't know they've been robbed of the lives they could have had.
"I miss them so much they just don't know how much it hurts," said Kathy Williams.
"They" are her children, turned into modern day slave labor, she says and all Williams can do for the past 20 years is helplessly watch.
"They" are her children, turned into modern day slave labor, she says and all Williams can do for the past 20 years is helplessly watch.
It all started almost twenty years ago in 1995 when Williams' husband died unexpectedly.
She was on the brink of a nervous breakdown, left on her own to raise four children. Two have mental disabilities, the youngest just 5 years old.
"I was lost, confused emotional wreck," Williams said. "I didn't have any money, nowhere to go."
And then appeared a ray of light in Williams' darkest hour. An acquaintance, Catherine Bergum, offered to take the kids in.
"I should have never gone down that rode should have known better," Williams said.
"I should have never gone down that rode should have known better," Williams said.
Little did Williams know, those kids would eventually become part of what appears to be an elaborate and shameful money making scheme.
And now the kids have grown to be adults.
And now the kids have grown to be adults.
Fox 2 watched them for months as they sold candy door to door. Business to business. On foot all day, everyday, rain or shine.
They live with Catherine Bergum and her husband Don, both of whom records show became the kids' legal guardians in the mid-1990s.
Five out of the seven young people, including their own grandson with their own documented mental disabilities.
Each have a range of challenges from schizophrenia, to retardation, to depression and emotional impairment.
Instead of nurturing and caring for her special needs family inside their Dearborn Heights home, numerous complaints say Catherine Bergum forced the kids to work and live like animals.
Sleeping on the kitchen floor, or in backyard shed that doesn't have heat or bedding, and made to use a porta potty set up on the side of the house.
The day starts with chores and when they are finished, they hit the streets.
Bergum's daughter Nancy Britt picks them up from the Bergum home and drops off in a different location. Sometimes as far away as the Upper Peninsula. Always on the move, so no one catches on..
Each day they are not allowed to come home until every box of the candy is sold.
A man who worked as a former driver for Bergum, wanted us to conceal his identity and says regrettably, he knows first-hand.
"If they sell 150 boxes a day, $8 a box we're talking $1,000 dollars or more a day," he said.
Fox 2's Taryn Asher: "And how much do the kids keep?"
"Nothing," the former driver said. "The reason I left, I got tired or it. I've seen how she was treating the kids. I got tired of it."
Bergum's sellers claim the money goes toward a nonprofit and are happy to provide laminated proof - a document no more official than the cheap plastic around it.
Fox 2: "So what's the name of your company?
"Americans of Today," said the candy seller. "See it's right on there, Americans of Today."
Fox 2 discovered Americans of Today may be filed with the state as a nonprofit, but right now the attorney general's office which regulates charities, says it's questioning whether it's legitimate cause.
Americans of Today is not even registered as a charitable trust. Because for years documents show the non profit hasn't proved to the state where the money was going.
It didn't provide copies of Internal Revenue Service returns or financial statements, or a description of all methods of solicitation - a violation of state law.
It didn't provide copies of Internal Revenue Service returns or financial statements, or a description of all methods of solicitation - a violation of state law.
Americans of Today is licensed by the city of Livonia, but not to sell candy according to clerk. Only to pass out fliers, but one can see here in Livonia, they are not.
In fact, one came up and even sold candy to Fox 2.
On each box of candy it says WorkingTeens.com "Proven fact that a teen kept busy stays out of trouble."
On the website which has no contact information, and tries to fend off curious media - claims the working teens get to keep 33 percent of the money.
But here's another problem - the people working for Catherine Bergum are no longer teens..
Fox 2: "How long you been involved in the program?"
"21 years, yep," the young man said.
Fox 2: "Done a lot for you?"
"Oh yeah," he said.
Fox 2: "How long have you been associated with the program?"
"Twenty-something years," he said.
The former driver for Bergum said the sellers never receive any money they make.
"That's why they claim it's a nonprofit," the former driver said.
Fox 2: "But she is the one profiting."
"Definitely," he said.
Fox 2: "There are no kids, there is no charity this money is going toward."
"No, not at all," the driver said.
Williams agreed.
"It's all about money with her," Williams said. "She doesn't love my kids she uses my kids, all of those kids. Not just mine, anybody's kids."
"It's all about money with her," Williams said. "She doesn't love my kids she uses my kids, all of those kids. Not just mine, anybody's kids."
Fox 2's Taryn Asher confronted Bergum outside a metro Detroit restaurant.
"Catherine, I need to speak with you for a moment," Asher said. "I want to hear about what you've been doing for the last 20 years, making mentally challenged kids sell candy door to door."
"I don't know what you are talking about," Bergum said.
"You want to tell me about your fake nonprofits you set up, where's all the money?" Asher asked.
In 2009, records show Bergum filed for bankruptcy and claims she made $600 that year from her nonprofit Americans of Today.
Several documents show Bergum isn't only profiting from her lucrative candy business, she is collecting all of their social security checks.
As their representative payee she gets nearly $700 a month for each of the six who are now adults she cares for. That comes to about $4,200 a month.
It appears she uses all of that ill-gotten money to go shopping, drive nice cars, dine out almost every night and got to casinos. She can be seen in multiple photos at Soaring Eagle time and time again.
Yet those special needs adults are said to make nothing.
Elmer Cerano leads a Lansing-based organization that protects the rights of people with disabilities. He is appalled by what Fox 2 discovered.
"People are complaining that somebody is walking through the neighborhoods selling candy and it just doesn't feel right, follow up on that," Cerano said. "Adult protective services, child protective services if it started when people were young. Where the hell were they?"
Over the last 12 years there have been 14 different complaints filed with adult protective services against Catherine Bergum and her husband. The complaints detail the candy scam with allegations of exploitation, neglect, emotional physical and even sexual exploitation.
To this date nothing has been done to remove the vulnerable, special needs adults.
To this date nothing has been done to remove the vulnerable, special needs adults.
The complaints date back to 2002 filed by concerned citizens, family members even the victims themselves, stating:
- How they live in horrendous conditions
- How they are forced to sell candy against their will and punished and ridiculed when they do not.
- How they are forced to eat onion sandwiches and clean the privacy fence with a toothbrush.
- How they are moved around to different locations to conceal the candy selling scam.
State regulators say allegations aren't substantiated and the case is closed. But for those with little concept of time, the case is never closed.
Fox 2 "How long have you been associated with the program?"
"Twenty-something years," the seller said.
The candy seller was asked what they get out of it.
"We get trips and activities," the seller said.
"They something but they still work when they camp," the former driver said. "They don't go on activities or anything like that, maybe once or twice a year."
Once or twice a year. or about how often the state has been to the Bergum house.
It all goes according to script. Records claim Catherine Bergum will set it up like everyone is living in a comfortable home with more than enough food.
She will get rid of the porta potty in the back and she won't allow the mentally impaired adults to be interviewed alone. The alleged victims say they are happy and deny anything was wrong.
"My kids are brainwashed, " Williams said. "I know they are brainwashed."
"Are they forced to say certain things," Asher asked.
"Oh yeah," the former driver said. "I've been to therapy with them before no one-on-ones with them. Cathy always has to be there."
When it came to probate court, for years Bergum had to provide annual reports on the condition of each of the legally incapacitated, developmentally disabled people in her care.
She documented all of the family activities she claims they go on, and each time it appears her word was good enough..
"They don't know any different," Cerano said. "If you're controlling everything that happens to them from when they're a kid, what choice do they have.
"When they are taken advantage of, people need to pay a price for that."
Bergum, when confronted, did not answer questions.
"What do you have to say about that," Asher asked Bergum. "What do you have to say about yourself exploiting these kids Cathy. All these years.
"What do you have to say about that," Asher asked Bergum. "What do you have to say about yourself exploiting these kids Cathy. All these years.
"You took guardianship of these kids. It's your duty to take care of them. Where's all the money Cathy?"
Bergum did not answer the questions, climbing into her vehicle to leave the parking lot.
Through the years Williams says she has tried to get her kids back, get them away from Bergum. But the courts always felt the Bergums were able to provide a more stable home.
Now that they are adults, it hurts her to think this is the only life they've ever known.
"It really get me upset," Williams said. "But there is nothing I can do. I just hope and pray they will wake up one day and realize what is going on."
In response to Fox 2's story, the Michigan Department of Human Services issued this statement from Bob Wheaton, the acting manager of communications.
The Michigan Department of Human Services has begun a thorough review of cases involving these guardianships. There are questions and concerns related to these cases.
The department and its director, Maura Corrigan, take very seriously its responsibility to protect the safety and well-being of vulnerable adults.
That's the job of our Adult Protective Services. The DHS Office of Family Advocate is reviewing the cases.
To provide a fresh pair of eyes, the Oakland County Department of Human Services also has been assigned by DHS to review the cases - as well as other active cases involving this guardian that were already being investigated.
Two separate investigations have been launched because of Fox 2's story.
Now something may be done.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
No comments:
Post a Comment