Realtor Duped By Veterans Charity

Investigator | Realtor loses house, $200k, feels duped by veteran
WKYC-TV
Tom Meyer and Phil Trexler
June 24, 2015

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- As a long-time real estate agent, James Catalano has seen a lot of houses come and go. But it's the one he bought -- and lost to a Vietnam veteran -- that has him feeling duped.

The Highland Road home sits about a quarter-mile away from the city's Police Department. Catalano purchased the property as an investment in 2004 for $100,000 and he said he has sunk thousands of dollars in repairs into the ranch-style house.

In 2007, he rented the property to Curtis Freeman, a self-proclaimed Purple Heart recipient and an advocate for Vietnam veterans such as himself.

According to Catalano, Freeman and his companion, Patricia Hawkins, intended to use to the home to help veterans secure housing. They said the government was expected to provide their charity -- Veterans Helping Veterans -- with funding to help more than a dozen down-on-their-luck vets.

At one point in 2007, the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones called Catalano to thank him for helping Freeman. Now, Catalano wonders if that was really Tubbs Jones calling. After all, nothing but false promises followed in the next seven years, he said, as Freeman and Hawkins offered excuse after excuse instead of rent payments.

"I didn't have him evicted because he kept telling me they were getting money from the government," Catalano said. He said the couple also passed him $40,000 in bad checks.
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Just goes to show that just because folks claim to be helping veterans, too many times, they are just helping themselves.