Web Site That Solicited Donations For Returning War Veterans Home In Phelps County A Fraud, Missouri AG Says
Mon, 09/17/2007 - 12:41 — newsdesk
September 14, 2007 -- Jefferson City, Mo. — The owner of a Web site that solicits donations purportedly for military and veterans related causes - including a supposed rural retreat in Phelps County for war veterans recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder - has been defrauding donors, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon says. Nixon obtained a temporary restraining order today against James Barbee of Carpinteria, Calif., and Liberty Spirit Farm Foundation, who solicit donations for Liberty Spirits Farm and Liberty Spirit Ranch on the Web site. The Attorney General is also seeking injunctions, restitution and civil penalties.
Nixon says that Barbee, who operates www.libertyspiritsfarm.org, began soliciting for charitable contributions on the site for the Liberty Spirits Farm near Lake Spring in April. The Web site describes the location as a rural retreat for military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and states that donations would help pay for the costs associated with operating the farm. At one time the site also featured pictures of the farm, including specific rooms and the 840 acres surrounding it.
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I am a member of this group and the Missouri Attorney General is completely lying about what has happened. There has never been one penny raised from any veterans or the public. This group of a Korean and two Vietnam vets, a wounded Iraq Vet and an Iraq War widow, have used their own funds to try and quietly creat a retreat for returning vets.
ReplyDeleteThe Mo AG is a liar and has viciously attacked this group with no facts and hasn't bothered to look at the real facts, instead is using these innocent people as pawns for political personal gain. I would advise this blog to get the real facts before slandering innocent people, as the Mo AG has.
I would suggest you read what and where it came from and then go after them. If the group is as honest as you say, then it should be a matter for the media to clear up. I'm glad you posted your side of this as it is, but I'm a small time blogger. I would be more concerned with correcting the story from the source if I really wanted to defend this group if I were you.
ReplyDeleteJim Barbee put this group together in March of this year. He asked nothing of anyone and used his own money to start this. Other friends joined him in this effort to behind the scenes create this retreat before the public saw it. The website referred to by the AG was not available on any search engine, it was put up privately so their attorney and friends could help develop it before they made the formal announcement.
ReplyDeleteGo after who? The AG? And how do you do that? This group has offered it's evidence to a brick wall of that office. Mr. Barbee, under contracts from Fred Hoppe, again using only his own funds, tried to assist Hoppe in saving the Branson Museum. Not one person in this nation would help Hoppe, and Mr. Barbee spent his life savings trying to.
He and this group are guilty of nothing but bad lawyers and trying to do something that has never been done. There was never, at any time, money from veterans or the public ever donated for either projects except for the 1 sting check from the Attorney General.
You want the facts, you got the facts. I have witnessed both projects and watched this man sacrifice his money and health trying to save this museum and help his beloved veterans.
The criminals here is the AG office, not Jim Barbee.
James Ashmore
If you click the link at the top of the post, as indicated on the post, you will see where the story came from.
ReplyDeleteI am glad they have you do defend them if what you say is true. There are a lot of good people in this country who get attacked just because they try to do good. It sounds like it is the case this time as well by everything you posted. If you want to say more, please feel free to stand up for them here. But again, keep in mind, this blog does not hold much power. There are very few readers of it.
The post came from All American Patriots. I think they have a lot more people reading that site than mine. I get Google alrerts on veterans and PTSD. They were in one of the alrerts so I don't know much about their site.
Keep up the good fight for someone who seems to have been attacked unfairly.
Hello Kathie,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Jim Barbee and James has just shared your blog with me. Since I do not have the extensive media outlets my accusers have, I welcome an opportunity to defend our little group and myself.
Please may I state from the beginning, we have never accepted a donation from the public or any veteran in this nation. That is not what this is about. The entire project has been funded by two boardmembers and myself. You have a description of our group and we have been the ones to fund this, with one exception, the sting check from the attorney general. This is important, in the entire nation, this was the only donation received, ever.
James explained the website was not linked and was under design for the day we could announce this to the public, once the property was purchased. This is why the board directed me to conduct our business in a certain manner so this would not become public until we were set. We had a myspace page to connect friends who would send their suggestions on the site and we would clear the text with the attorney.
We did receive bad legal advice in that we were never told about the need to register with the AG office. We are not professionals and had depended on him to keep us in a legal mode. He was fired on June 8 for not telling us about this. I explained to the AG office we had fired him and would register as soon as we found a new attorney.
In the meantime, we didn't complete setting up the donor account in Rolla, so we would follow their exact orders. We took off any reference to donating to us on the unpublished site, but did leave a phrase about giving to vets in general. And we lost the property in Rolla.
In order to move forward and register, we had to have a site to create all the paperwork the IRS requires. This process and finding an attorney took to Sept 4. Since that time we have been moving forward until this attack on us by the AG in the press.
As to the museums. Fred Hoppe contracted me in Nov 05 to sell his Pigeon Forge Collection to save him from bankruptcy and lawsuits by his partners. I bought other museums and Ross Perot to the table with Hoppe and his lawyer. Later, they created a non profit in this same attempt to raise 10 million in one donation. It was never set up to take small donations, only one or two large ones. He needed $13.5 million immediately and that was why they created this. All funds from sales or donations would go directly to his attorney's account but there were none, not one according to them.
The only funds used to do this was my lifesavings and inheritance, which I lost both. We never had an account to accept funds, only the attorney had that. No other funds were donated, no sale made and I failed to help him.
I spent a year of my life, full time, trying to save this wonderful location that to this day I have never seen. I was doing it for my brothers and sisters in the military and our future.
I have brought the committment to this project because of my love for these people and to have all of us so mischaracterized is beyond belief, when you consider no official has looked at anything of ours or asked.
Suddenly, I was a villain in the press and we were a scam. Can you imagine what that is like when you have done nothing but dedicated months to a project that has never been done. As a disabled person, it has been a bit of a struggle, but worth it.
We have the enlisted help of so many noted professionals and people in setting this criteria up. We have found something that can be of real benefit, and to have this media assault of misinformation go national is a position I wish on no one.
But tell your public, be assured, we have scammed no one. Unless you can consider us losing our money because we were crazy enough to think we could help our heroes with a wonderful place to recover.
No victims here except us. Thank you for an opportunity to tell our side and the truth for once.
This is terrible but it happens all the time to good people. That's the problem. You are trying to do something good for others, with what seems to be, very little money, and you get trashed.
ReplyDeleteThe system makes it almost impossible for people to bring their passion and talents to the public's attention because of all the scams out there. The big "boys" don't want to help because they think you are trying to cut into their territory. You would think that if they were doing such a great job there wouldn't be any need of people taking action on their own to fix what is wrong in this country.
Feel free to post anything here. I just wish I had more readers to find out what happened to you and to hear your side of the story. At least, my readers will know.
Don't give up. If you are doing something out of the goodness of your heart to help others, God will see it and find a way to help you sooner or later. Let's just pray it is sooner than later. There is a country filled with hurting people right now and they are in urgent need of compassion.
I just had a better idea. I'm posting this on my other blog with the story and then your reply. That blog gets more readers, but again, it's a small time blog as well. Go to Screaming In An Empty Room at namguardianangel.blogspot.com and post there too. The post will be up in about five minutes
ReplyDeleteWhat has happened to the Liberty Spirits project? Will it still continue after all this? Good questions and I wish they had the answers, but they don't. The Missouri Attorney General has done everything to destroy this program. From calling every contact Barbee had put together to his family. This annonymous caller would state this was a scam and Barbee a scam artist trying to hurt the veterans. Not only were these calls illegal, but immoral. How can a government agency get away with this?
ReplyDeleteThree months later finds Barbee without a home, still trying to go forward with a small handful of supporters. The AG has not just hurt this man, but every person in this group that was trying to help veterans. This assassination of character and project has defied any morality on the part of the AG.
Will this PTSD retreat ever be built and this great program have a chance to help others? Only time will tell, but if I were a betting man and knowing Jim like I do, I'd place my bet on him. He is no longer the man he was since the strain has increased his Parkinsons, but he will keep fighting for this beloved veterans no matter what it takes, because that is the kind of person he is.
I feel so badly for this group and the veterans that have lost. This AG victimized so many people that were just trying to help, including Jim and after all of this investigation, what happened? Nothing. That's what happened. They could find nothing wrong.
James Ashmore..
It really is terrible. There was an updated post on this.
ReplyDeleteScamming Donors, Attorney General Says
Veterans Charity Scamming Donors, Attorney General Says
December 03, 2007 10:28 AM
Anna Schecter and Rehab El-Buri Report:
A man attempted to scam generous Americans by falsely claiming he was running a "rural retreat for military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder" in Missouri, the state attorney general says. The retreat does not exist.
After a settlement conference earlier this month, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon has decided to sue James Barbee in civil court under the state's consumer protection laws in February for allegedly defrauding donors. Nixon obtained a temporary restraining order against Barbee in September to prevent further solicitation.
Nixon said Barbee solicited donations for the Missouri-based Liberty Spirits Farm beginning last April on his Web site, libertyspiritsfarm.org.
I posted it a few days ago. I really wish that someone could get to the bottom of this and end this witch hunt of show exactly what it is he did then maybe he could clear his name. I think if anything he got trapped up in this convoluted system.
I'll be sure to post any updates. The veterans with PTSD can use all the help they can get from the people because the government isn't doing enough.
The only person who has been emailing you is Mr Barbee, using his usual manipulative tactics and lies to generate pity and support. I know this because he scammed my foundation out of $12,000 by telling me his "retreat" tall tale and pressing the need for the money for a promotional video for his Missouri Property which I discovered later he not only does not own but HE HAS NEVER EVEN VISITED. There was no "staff in place to open the doors in August of '07, and no intention to ever do so. The clinical head of treatment that he claimed to have running operations had never even heard of him. As if this wasn't bad enough, you should know that I started The Lehner Foundation after my fiance, who was a Marine Corps veteran of OEF, shot himself in the head in Dec. 05. Jim took all of the money I had generated through hard work and caring donations and spent it on himself, not the veterans who's lives may depend on this money for PTSD treatment and realted expenses. I am still crushed to have been taken so advantage of in a vulnerable state. I am greiving Jeff's death every day of my life, but instead of letting it crush me I wanted to do something for others who are in Jeff's shoes. Jim has stolen all of that not only from me but from the men and women who have put their lives and futures on the line for our proud country. James Kent Barbee, you should be ashamed of yourself for what you have done, and I pray that the Lord hold you accountable for any life that has been lost to PTSD because you were clever enough to fool a greiving widow. Shame on you.
ReplyDeleteReverend Sarah Farmer
Reverend Sarah Farmer,
ReplyDeleteSorry for your loss and the fact you feel as if you were taken for a ride. The post, as with all of them, is open to anyone to post on for reasons like this. There are always two sides to every story.
The only reason I have a comment for you now is simple. You began your comment with an attack against me. "The only person emailing you" as if you would have a clue what or who emails me at all. Emails are not comments.
I've posted about your site the way I post on every thing I find and all posts are open to be commented on. The posts are done to provide information and it's up to the readers to take it from there. Comment moderation is only being used because some idiot decided to use profanity while trying to prove a point. If there isn't any in a comment, it will be allowed.I hope that answers any thoughts in your mind that the only person contacting me is Barbee. By the way, this is not the only post on this topic.
I think you have misunderstood what I was trying to say. What I meant was that the person who claimed to be James Ashmore was in fact James Barbee himself. He is a crook and a charleton who I have recently discoved has been convicted of felony fraud crimes in the past. My only reason for following up on this blog is to stop him from conning other people into supporting his personal expenses. I was naiive enough to beleive in him... apparantly there are many others as well who lost far more than I. You will certainly hear more about this story as the weeks and months go along as he is now under federal investigation. I apologise for offending you and your blog site. I just thought you should know before you gave him any more credibility. Sarah Farmer
ReplyDeleteNo harm done now that you explained what you meant. We all have it happen trying to say something but something else comes out. Thanks. The other part is, this is the reason why comments are always welcome. Both sides on something like this can come out.
ReplyDeleteHello, my name is Shaun Barbee. I am James Barbee's son. It's sort of a shocking thing to not only go through google sites talking about my dad like this, but then to hear peoples horrible comments...i just don't know what to think. I can say that i lived with my dad through all of this. I saw how every moment of every day was spent working on this. i don't know if people picture my dad like living it up or something, but i can assure you that was DEFINATLY not the case. We were struggling to get by while my dad tried to do something good. Sarah, i cannot imagine what you've been through with your husband, and the pain you must still feel. According to my dad, he never recieved any amount of money like that, from anyone. If something like this really happened, there must be some misunderstanding. That being said, if your serious about what you said, i'd be interested to hear your side of the story. As far as James Ashmore being my dad incognito, i can assure you too that he is a very real person and has been a part of our lives for many years. If there is any question that i am who i say i am, well, i guess i can't prove it, but i am his son. And i would love to hear someone elses side of this story.
ReplyDeleteShaun Barbee,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you are here to offer your father's side of the story. There are so many times people want to help and they try very hard to do it but somehow along the way end up in a mess like this. Please tell more about what you know so that we can get a better idea of what really happened.
James Barbee is a con, always has been. He is so full of it. Nothing but lies. I researched him myself. He tried to say he was in the military. I know for a fact he was dishonorable discharged in the late '60's. He never even made it overseas. He has a mental illness. Has had it for 50 years.
ReplyDelete