The Elena Tresh Foundation Fraud Charity Embezzlement Tresh Safety Harbor, Florida
Safety Harbor based 501(c)3 charity, The Elena Tresh Foundation, has been raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in the name of childhood illness and brain cancer. However, almost none of the money ever reaches any of the families who apply for assistance. The New York Yankees wrote the Elena Tresh Foundation a check for $10,000. Lokey Motors, Crabby Bills, Auto Nation, Sarasota BMW, and many many others, all gave over $2500 each to the foundation. The overhead is very low and founder Jennifer Tresh claims to take no salary. Yet, there is never any money for any of the families in need. The families that the foundation use as their examples of who they help were helped over 3 years ago. In spite of federal tax laws, there is NO board of directors, no treasurer, only founder Jennifer Tresh has any input into who gets money or how it is spent. All cash contributions are held by Jennifer Tresh and no one is allowed to count the money except Jennifer. They ran a raffle this past summer for a Smart Car and sold tickets for $20 each. They collected the money, selling hundreds of tickets, and the drawing was to be October 9th. Jennifer decided to not purchase the car to give away, and refused to refund the money to people who had purchased tickets. I was a volunteer for the charity and witnessed the money coming in and the outright theft that is taking place while hundreds of families are put on a waiting list. I have witnessed Jennifer Tresh take cash directly from community events and go shopping. I had always hoped and assumed that she was repaying the charity, but realized after I personally counted the money I took in from ticket sales at the door at a concert at the Safety Harbor Spa, that over $4500 in cash contributions went unreported at that event alone. The Elena Tresh Foundation also runs a counseling center out out of their office in Safety Harbor. After I realized what a huge scam this is, I did some checking. Jennifer Tresh was forced to give up her RN license over 2 years ago for stealing prescription pads and getting narcotics for herself. As part of the settlement with the business, the National Deaf Academy in Mount Dora Florida, that she and her husband, James Tresh, partnered with another doctor, the Treshs had to leave the business and surrender her license. James Tresh also failed to renew his practice mental health counseling. Yet they continue to practice WITHOUT A LICENSE and TAX FREE through their 501(c) 3. Recently 10Connects ran a story of Jennifer Tresh and the foundation named for her child who died from a brain tumor, painting her as almost a saint. On October 9th of this month did a fund raiser with international jazz star, saxophonist Eric Darius that raised an estimated $40,000. People are being ripped off by the Tresh family as they capitalize on the horrific death of their own child...appealing to every parent's fear of losing their own child. I volunteered literally hundreds of hours and was duped out of over $16,000 of my own money. I am reporting them to the state attorney general as well as the IRS and Medical Quality Assurance Department of Florida.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Roberto
Vail,Colorado,
United States of America
Charity Checker
#3Consumer Comment
Tue, February 09, 2010
All of us are potential victims of our desire to give to those less fortunate. Many so-called-charities take advantage of that.
Charitynavigator.org offers 10 points for giving to reputable and responsible charities. It seems to me that in the case of this charity, one might simply check the financial records of the charity. The charity should have those forms readily available to anyone who asks and shoulf be proud to offer donors a copy. If they don't have them available or are hesitant to hand show this public document, look for another charity.
According to CharityNavigator.org, a responsible charity uses at least 75% of all contributions toward programs and services with 25% or less used for fundraising, overhead and administrative expenses. I suggest that the owners of this charity post their financial records here to disprove these claims if they are able.
OTHERWISE, ALWAYS GIVE TO REPUTABLE AND RESPONSIBLE CHARITIES.
DCrystal
Safety Harbor,Florida,
United States of America
Christmas Snow Slide
#3General Comment
Mon, November 09, 2009
We took our family to the winter in July snow slide for the Elena Tresh charity. My wife and I both commented on the way that cash was being handled and how disorganized and unprofessional everything was. It felt like a money grab with no information about what the money would be used for with the charity? The place was miserable and it felt like a scam. We live in Safety Harbor and are familiar with the Tresh family. It was very sad what happened to their grandchild but that doesn't give them lisence to make money in her name. They told everyone that they sold their business for 40 million dollars but can't manage to pay poor local vendors for several months for work they do, forcing them to fight to be paid? My contractor told me he had done work for the charity and they never paid him. He said trying to chase them down wasz more work than it was worth. I won't support this charity again. There are too many really good people who need money in this economic climate.