The New Mexico chapter is listed as donating $132,506 in food, shelter, clothing, direct cash assistance and medical and dental care to indigent veterans and families in New Mexico, according to IRS records obtained by The Independent. However, no details are offered about where exactly the money and donations were spent, or what hospitals or health clinics were paid.

Korsmo, whose father is a Navy veteran, investigated the New Mexico chapter and found the chapter officials’ addresses listed in IRS filings do not actually exist.

IRS documents list Howard Bonifacio as head of the New Mexico chapter, and his address as 388 Boutz Road in Las Cruces. But that address is an empty field, the Attorney General’s Office found. AG officials could find no evidence in tax records or phone books that Bonifacio, or another New Mexico chapter official, Don Archer of 2698 Espina St., Las Cruces, really exist.

“We found nothing but some dirt and some mesquite,” Korsmo said. “And Howard Bonifacio is not in the White Pages of New Mexico; nor is he in the White Pages anywhere in the U.S. Until Mr. Bonifacio comes to talk to us, I’m going to assume he doesn’t exist.”

Korsmo wrote to the group’s Washington, D.C. headquarters on April 1, notifying them that they are not lawfully registered as a charity in New Mexico and are in violation of the state Charitable Solicitations Act.

“New Mexico is the first state to react to the news about the USNVA from a regulatory standpoint, so it is clear Ms. Korsmo and her staff take the responsibility of protecting New Mexico consumers seriously,” Times journalist Jeff Testerman, one of the authors of the investigative series, told The Independent. “If the names and/or addresses on the 990 (nonprofit IRS) tax forms are fictional, then the tax returns have been falsified, and the IRS should take an interest.”

The U.S. Navy Veterans Association, formed in Tampa, Florida in 2002, is registered in New Mexico and 40 other states, and has annual revenues of $22 million, according to a St. Petersburg Times.

The New Mexico chapter of the Navy Veterans said it raised $249,305 in 2008, the most current tax return available.

The Times reporters have been investigating the group’s activities in 41 states.

“In most cases, the USNVA simply listed state officers at rented mailboxes, so it was impossible to verify addresses,” Testerman told The Independent. “In most cases, the (Navy Veterans Association) simply listed state officers at rented mailboxes, so it was impossible to verify addresses. For some reason, the New Mexico chapter officers were listed on 990 tax forms at street addresses, which we now know turned out to be non-existent.”

The charity’s founder, Bobby Thompson, has is “now missing from his Tampa address,” Testerman added.

Gabriel Nims, who has been executive director of the group for two years, said the downhill slide started several years ago but gained momentum in recent months. “We just couldn’t get the support quick enough that we needed,” he told NMI. “We’ve been raising money all along the way, but not enough to sustain us.”

1000 Friends formed in 1995, but its efforts really took off a few years later, Nims said. The group was headquartered in Albuquerque, but its stated goal was to promote policies and actions “that respect New Mexico’s people and places by offering long-term models for growth that improve the region’s economic vitality.”

The small staff worked on a range of issues, including climate change, transportation, housing and economic development. It had a strong voice in the debate over the controversial use of tax increment financing to fund development around the state. One of its larger efforts, the New Mexico Water Project under the direction of Conci Bokum, is hoped to continue under different auspices, Nims said.

1000 Friends will be sorely missed, said Anne Stauffer, policy analyst for New Mexico Voices for Children. “I think it’s a huge loss,” she said. Her group worked closely with 1000 Friends on the broader issues of state tax policy and “smart growth,” she said. “They were a really helpful resource in terms of understanding some of the many issues involved.”

The 1000 Friends office shut down in September. Its board of directors will continue to meet after the official shutdown at the end of October and will consider reorganizing under a different model to remain “impactful,” Nims said.

The group once had an operating budget of more than $500,000 a year, but fund-raising efforts couldn’t keep pace with expenses, Nims said. “We knew what we were up against six months ago,” but the combination of political campaign fund raising and the failing economy worked against them, he said.

“Folks were using their dollars for political campaigns or to fill their gas tanks and there wasn’t enough left” to keep groups like 1000 Friends afloat, Nims said. “Had we had another six months or so, I think we’d have been able to do all right. But things weren’t falling into place quick enough for us.”