UPPER SANDUSKY— An Upper Sandusky woman has responded to allegations set forth in a settlement agreement with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Tuesday.
Melissa “MJ” Johnson is accused of using charitable donations for cars, vacations, motorcycle reconditioning, college tuition and cash for family members with money raised through her non-profit organization, the Koda Bear Foundation.
According to Yost in a press release on Tuesday, Johnson took with one hand and ended up spending with both.
“Behavior like this not only harms other more deserving organizations but also the public’s trust in charity,” Yost said.
The investigation stemmed from a public complaint made in May 2018.
Johnson, who is a bodybuilder and was named Miss Natural Northern Figure in 2006 before appearing on the television show, “Wife Swap” in 2007, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday evening that she was not aware of many of the laws surrounding charities. Her Facebook posts reads:
Let me start out by saying no good deed goes unpunished and many lessons learned. I know many of you have seen the press going around about the foundation and the attorney general. First of all and most important, the words written in that press release are allegations. They are word for word allegations made by a scorned ex-girlfriend to one of my boys that was in a bitter custody battle with my son. There are no proven facts of this case. No money was ever stolen and that was never, ever proven. Did we make mistakes? Yes. We sure did. Through this whole process we learned a lot about charitable law. Things our attorney told us no one would know unless they were sitting in the attorney general’s office trying to make money off of people trying to help others. Did we use money on ourselves? If you consider using funds to cover trips to others states to host 2 Koda Bear events then I guess that is a yes because that’s all they found. Now if we would have known how to properly document all these things and turn them into the state, we would have been fine. When starting this foundation, we did not know anything about charitable law. We went to the bank, opened up an account and raised money and put in 33 headstones. Sent out more bears than I will ever remember. I did all of this on my own personal time. We hosted tons of events. Because of that we could have been fined huge if we did not take a settlement offer with the A.G. For those of you who do not know this, you must register each and every event you host or face very substantial fines from the state. We honest to god had no idea. We did not register any of them and no one ever told us we needed too until it was too late. For that reason, we were facing huge fines. Our attorney is currently on top of this crap press release because that’s precisely what it is. No charges were ever filed. If anyone wants to message me with any questions, I am perfectly happy to answer them. We did the best we could with a very bad situation. I am no expert at running something that got this large and I did what I could to help everyone I could. I have learned a very hard lesson and knowing all the time and effort I put into trying to help other people has turned into something so ugly is forever going to rip my heart out. This was always meant to be a good thing to help people like us that went through the same hell we did and still are.
The Koda Bear Foundation had stated its mission was to provide headstones for families who have lost a child, namely for “stillborn” children. The organization had total revenue of $33,671.97 in 2018. Many people who have lost children and benefited from the Koda Bear Foundation reached out to Johnson on social media in support of her and the work she has done in helping provide their children with headstones and them with stuffed bears in honor of the children they lost.
Under the terms of the settlement with Yost, Johnson agreed to dissolve her organization, the Koda Bear Foundation, to pay $2,000 in restitution, and to pay an $8,000 civil fine. She also agreed to never again incorporate a nonprofit organization in Ohio and to shut down websites and social media accounts related to the Koda Bear Foundation. She also cannot serve as a board member or solicit on behalf of an Ohio nonprofit for five years.
The attorney general’s office investigation revealed that Johnson used charitable funds for personal purchases such as family trips, personal items and personal gatherings.
Most Ohio charities are small. More than half (53%) of them reported revenues under $100,000 this past year. Only 13% reported revenues of more than $1 million.
Suspected charitable fraud should be reported to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov or 800-282-0515.