Former VFW Post 4107 official charged with fraudulent use of credit devices

A former quartermaster of the Veterans of Foreign Affairs Post 4107 has been charged with fraudulent use of the organization’s debit/credit devices, according to Case.net’s filing of the case and confirmed by a post official. Jacob Ross currently faces five felony charges of fraudulent use of credit/debit device, three misdemeanor charges, and one misdemeanor charge of having knowingly made a false statement to the Missouri Gaming Commission. The probable cause statement leading to the charges against Ross do not name the organization referenced in the investigation or his relation to it. A VFW Post 4107 official separately confirmed that the referenced organization was the post and that Ross was its quartermaster from 2018 to 2023. According to the probable cause statement filed on Tuesday, the Lebanon Police Department originally received a report from then-recently elected Post Commander Jamie Folsom that he had discovered that the post was in severe debt and had not filed income taxes for the past four to five years. Based on advice from their CPA, the VFW made a list of suspected fraudulent transactions. Ross, then quartermaster during the alleged fraudulent period, oversaw all purchases, debit cards, check books, and cash for the organization and was also charged with filing the post’s income taxes. According to the statement, some of the alleged fraudulent transactions, which dated back to early 2019, were in excess of $750 in a single transaction. The statement added that the relevant transactions, which are required to be voted on when more than $100, and recorded in meeting minutes (the amendment to which Ross was involved with), were often not found in said minutes. Some of the alleged fraudulent transactions occurred at restaurants, hair salons, and similar businesses where a redacted party mentioned the VFW does not conduct business. For more on this story, see Saturday's LCR.