Veteran's Charity To Pay Back Wages After AG Suit

TACOMA, WA — Tacoma-based non-profit Veterans Independent Enterprises of Washington, or VIEW, has been given $1 million to repay creditors who lost money because of the non-profit's previous leadership.

Among the creditors are 74 veterans who are owed back wages, ranging from $192 up to $48,925 per employee, for at total of $310,489.37 in unpaid wages.

The repayment plan caps off a long saga for VIEW, one which started in 2019 when the Washington State Attorney General's Office discovered that VIEW's former operations manager was misappropriating funds, and filed a lawsuit against her and two board members.

The suit found that operations manager Rosemary Hibbler had neglected VIEW's stated goal — providing transitional housing for veterans in need — and instead spent charity money on herself, taking more than $850,000 from VIEW's bank accounts and spending nearly $200,000 through VIEW's debit card on personal expenditures, including withdrawing money from local casinos to buy gambling cards. The attorney general's office says Hibbler had an extensive criminal history, convicted ten times of felony theft or forgery, and at one point even used VIEW's money to bail herself out of jail after an arrest.

While money was funneled away from the non-profit, VIEW stopped paying for low income housing repairs, stopped paying wages to veteran employees, and even laid off its entire staff at one point, but asked them to continue to work for free.

As a result of that lawsuit, Hibbler and two of VIEW's former board members, Donald Hutt and Gary Peterson, were removed from their positions and have been banned from working for Washington charities ever again. Both board members were removed for repeatedly enabling Hibbler's conduct.

"Until the Attorney General’s lawsuit, Hibbler remained employed at VIEW, even though Hutt and Peterson received multiple warnings about her conduct," writes the attorney general's office. "One of VIEW’s shop managers called the police after noticing that Hibbler apparently forged checks with Peterson’s signature. In response, Hutt and Peterson decided to fire the shop manager."

But the story doesn't end with Hutt, Peterson, and Hibbler's removal. Through a resolution filed in Pierce County Superior Court, VIEW's insurance company has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve the suit. That money will go to VIEW, but will be disseminated by someone different: Daniel Bugbee, a veteran who has been appointed by the court to take over VIEW's operations. Once Bugbee has resolved all the claims of lost wages and back pay, he has been ordered to dissolve the corporation. From there, all of VIEW's remaining assets will be given Nine9Line Veterans Services, another Pierce County non-profit with a similar mission of providing aid to veterans in need. Nine9Line has also hired many former VIEW staff members.

“Our case put money toward making things right with the veterans VIEW employed,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. “My office will keep fighting for veterans.”