‘Boxes for Heroes,’ Frank Roach indicted for fraud

KENAI — A face familiar in the Mat-Su Valley for collecting care package donations for soldiers faces up to 10 years in prison and more than $2.6 million in fines after a May 4 indictment on nine criminal charges, including fraud.

Investigator Jeff Whannell of the Kenai Police Department led a months-long investigation of Kenai resident Francis Roach, 52, and his organization, Alaska Veterans Outreach Boxes for Heroes, according to information from the Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals within the state Department of Law.

Roach has said he formed the organization in April 2010 to raise money to produce care packages for deployed soldiers.

The investigation was sparked in October 2011 after an employee of the organization told Kenai Police he believed that Roach — who solicited donations for the care package program at retail stores from Wasilla to Homer and over the telephone — was pocketing the vast majority of the donations.

During the investigation, Whannell and his colleagues found that Boxes for Heroes raised more than $140,000 in donations from April 2010 to October 2011. Police allege Roach, president of Boxes for Heroes, used the donations as his sole source of income and to pay for all of his living expenses, according to OSPA.

Assistant Attorney General Clint Campion with OSPA described what amounts to a statewide fraud.

“We don’t know the source of all the donations, but we know that there were booths set up at retail locations in Anchorage, Wasilla, Kenai, Soldotna, Homer,” Campion said. “Donations were accepted and received in all of those different areas.”

OSPA tends to handle cases that require a specific legal skill set — environmental crimes, for instance — or when a criminal charged in a case is too close to the local district attorney’s office for that office to feel comfortable prosecuting him. In this case, Campion said, OSPA took over the case because of the scope and complexity of the charges.

Though Roach had in the past claimed association with other veterans charities, Campion said the Kenai investigation implicated no other organizations in any kind of wrongdoing.

He said there were hundreds of pages of documents to sort and dozens of donors and others to interview. He said Kenai police did a great job with that. OSPA came in at the end of 2011.

OSPA’s press release announcing the indictment came out Sunday. By Monday afternoon, Valley veterans charities had heard the news and were not shy about expressing opinions.

Roy Burkhart, a former AMVETS commander who, among other charitable work, actually sends care packages to troops overseas, said if Roach is convicted, he intends to be present when the judge hands down his sentence.

“I’ll pay my own way because I’ve got some things to say to him and say to the judge,” Burkhart said.

He said Roach tried to work for him at AMVETS in the past, but Burkhart refused.

Burkhart said he didn’t like the way Roach operated. Reading the current allegations, Burkhart wasn’t exactly surprised, and said he was outraged that someone might have stolen from veterans.

“These are guys over there risking their lives. I had a nephew killed over there,” Burkhart said.

He also said he worries about the effect this will have on veterans’ charities if the public fails to draw a distinction between legitimate groups and Boxes for Heroes — if Boxes for Heroes is found to have been a scam.

“He’s going to hurt the veterans groups real bad, and that’s too bad,” Burkhart said. “Every penny that we raise goes to the veterans. I even pay for my own hot dogs when it’s lunchtime.”

Roach faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for scheme to defraud and theft in the first degree; up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000 for theft in the second degree; and Alaska Veterans Outreach Boxes for Heroes faces a fine of up to $2.5 million.

Campion said Roach was in custody Monday morning and scheduled to be arraigned at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday in Kenai Superior Court.

The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman ran several stories about the organization over the years and received news tips on more than one occasion saying Roach’s group was a fraud, but the allegations could not be verified.

The tips came mostly from people involved with veteran’s charities. Those same tipsters very nearly got Roach banned from collecting items at a local grocery store.

Roach’s group would hold events where care packages were assembled. He enlisted help from other local charities, mostly youth organizations.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.