Originally published June 22 2012
Fraud, criminal history behind ALIVE New York exposed: Joshua Daniel Scurry and Anna Marie Scurry
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) NaturalNews has confirmed, through conversations with the IRS as well as through their database of records, that neither the "ALIVE Foundation" nor "ALIVE New York" has any legal standing with the IRS for accepting tax-deductible contributions. This is searchable at the following link, when selecting the "Are eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions" option:
http://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/revokeSearch.do?...
As you can see yourself, there is no active "ALIVE Foundation" or "ALIVE New York" listed by the IRS with such a designation. There is, however, a delisted "ALIVE Foundation" in La Puente, California, whose tax-exempt status was revoked on May 15th, 2010. This is related to a soccer organization, so it appears to have nothing to do with the ALIVE New York events.
There does exist, by the way, an "ALIVE Foundation" with a non-profit status in Washington state, but this confers no national tax exemption status as every accountant knows.
Despite having no tax-exempt status with the IRS, the ALIVE New York event was widely promoted as a "non-profit" event, using words such as "foundation" and "charity" and "donations" in order to attempt to acquire hundreds of thousands of dollars in donation money.
See the following screen shots we took before they started removing a lot of this information in the last 48 hours:
Statement that "ALIVE Foundation is a non-profit organization... annual charity fundraising benefit..."
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/alive2012/...
Claim that ticket purchases are "100% tax deductible"
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/alive2012/...
Another claim that donations are "fully tax deductible" and logo of the American Anti-Cancer Institute:
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/alive2012/...
Front page of their website, claiming contributions are "100 Tax Deductible"
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/alive2012/...
This claim has since been removed, not surprisingly, as NaturalNews is now going public with all this information in the public interest.
Ticket sales, sponsor sales are NOT tax deductible!
If an organization is not currently active with the IRS as a tax-exempt organization, donations are NOT tax deductible, and anyone claiming a tax deduction to that organization may be subject to an audit, fines and penalties.
That the ALIVE New York event was promoted as a non-profit "foundation" event, yet had no tax-exempt status with the IRS is further evidence of the outright fraud that took place there. Is also means the ALIVE founders have created a tax compliance nightmare for all the people who bought tickets, gave sponsorship money or gave donations while believing their donations were tax deductible.
In investigating this issue, I spoke with IRS agent number 100197138 on their tax-exempt information hotline. (877) 829-5500. He told me:
If someone claims to be tax exempt, they should provide an EIN, and if they are in fact 503(c)3, their EIN is disclosed to the general public. If you ask for their EIN, they certainly should provide it to you.
When I asked this agent to search the entire IRS database for the name "ALIVE Foundation," he asked me to hold for a few minutes while he conducted a search. He then replied with, "I have nothing under that name with recognition under the IRS."
According to our multiple sources, the so-called "ALIVE Foundation" has not provided an EIN to sponsors, and NaturalNews could not locate an EIN on their website or any of their materials. I spoke to an individual who donated to the "ALIVE Foundation" by phone today, and he confirmed with me, "To my knowledge, they never gave anyone an EIN."
Based on this evidence, it appears that the ALIVE Foundation non-profit claims were fraudulent and misleading, and that the money donated to ALIVE New York by sponsors and ticket purchasers actually went into an account of an organization which does not, in fact, have tax exempt status. If true, this is a serious felony crime.
The investment scam
NaturalNews has received further evidence that the fraudulent non-profit status was also being used as a front to solicit more money from yet more money people, with promises that the money would be repaid after the event with a return-on-investment of 3.5% - 5.0% in just 30 days. This comes out to over 42 percent annual return -- the kind of return you often see associated with Ponzi schemes or financial scams. This was described in an email from Joshua Scurry, which reads as follows:
ALIVE Foundation has a link for interested investors to review that covers business projections and investor information. Please review and let me know if you have any further questions. Please pass this link to ONLY qualified investors. We are prepared to pay out a short term ROI of 3.5% - 5% 30 days after the event on July 22nd.
Another email received by NaturalNews shows Anna Scurry targeting "rich" institutes for trying to acquire more money. They even targeted the Gerson Institute, which until recently had planned to attend:
Here are some RICH institutes a friend mentioned we should contact. They even mentioned the Gerson Institute...
The Chopra Center: They have one in NYC now too! http://www.chopra.com/contactus
The Ayurvedic Institute: http://www.ayurveda.com/about/directory.html
The Omega Institute: http://eomega.org/omega/contact/
The Kushi Institute: http://www.kushiinstitute.org/html/contact_u...
http://www.luckyvitamin.com/ might be good since they're online...
- Anna Scurry, Communications Director
How much money were they trying to get from organizations like these? It's all spelled out in their sponsorship contract (http://www.naturalnews.com/files/Alive-Donat...)
For contributions of more than $20,000 will be considered an Associate and will be featured as an "Associate" boldly displayed on our website and DVD.
For contributions of more than $40,000 will be considered an Associate Producer and will be featured as an "Associate Producer" boldly displayed on our website and DVD.
For contributions of more than $80,000 will be considered a Producer and will be featured as a "Producer" prominently displayed on our website and DVD.
For contributions of more than $150,000 will be considered an Executive Producer and will be featured as an "Executive Producer" prominently displayed on our website and DVD.
Ticket sales went through StayClassy.org, which disperses funds BEFORE the event takes place!
Another important element in all this is that ALIVE New York chose to sell tickets through StayClassy.org, an online e-commerce site that caters to non-profits. But unlike TicketMasters which normally disperses tickets sales only AFTER an event has taken place, StayClassy.org disperses funds every 7 to 14 days. There are NO refunds offered to ticket purchasers by StayClassy.org.
This means refund requests -- and they are already flooding into ALIVE New York, we have heard -- will need to be handled by the "ALIVE Foundation" itself. This is the very same group that falsified its tax-exempt status and thereby defrauded donors.
What is likely happening right now is that Joshua and Anna Scurry are consulting with their attorney about bankruptcy options in an attempt to absolve themselves of any financial obligations related to ticket sales or even venue fees. NaturalNews has learned that the group owes the Grand Hyatt Regency over $52,000 and that the amount has, at this point, remained unpaid.
As all this is going on, Liana Werner-Gray, the co-founder of the event who blew the whistle and went public with her video and statement yesterday (http://www.naturalnews.com/036248_ALIVE_New_...), says Joshua and Anna Scurry still owe her $15,000.
Criminal records of Joshua Daniel Scurry and Anna Marie Scurry
Both Joshua Scurry and Anna Scurry have extensive criminal records and a long history of breaking the law, endangering the public and having run-ins with law enforcement.
To see some of this yourself, go here:
http://dw.courts.wa.gov/index.cfm?fa=home.na...
Search for "Joshua Daniel Scurry" as the name. You will find at least 8 cases where Joshua was named as a defendant:
1 Scurry, Joshua Daniel
Defendant Kirkland Municipal 31252M 06-06-2007
2 Scurry, Joshua Daniel
Defendant Kirkland Municipal 3991C 07-24-2006
3 Scurry, Joshua Daniel
Defendant Kirkland Municipal 28950 10-31-2007
4 Scurry, Joshua Daniel
Defendant Sno Co-everett Div I00027040 09-08-2010
5 Scurry, Joshua Daniel
Defendant Kirkland Municipal 15578C 05-04-2007
6 Scurry, Joshua Daniel
Petitioner King County District 127-00173 04-05-2012
7 Scurry, Joshua Daniel
Defendant King County District 85-005654 05-05-2008
8 Scurry, Joshua Daniel
Defendant Sno Co-cascade Div 2Z0077852 01-23-2012
9 Scurry, Joshua Daniel
Defendant King County District BI0729814 06-27-2007
You will also find two court cases involving Anna Marie Scurry:
1 Scurry, Anna Marie
Defendant Lynnwood Municipal I00180412 05-11-2009
2 Scurry, Anna Marie
Defendant Bothell Municipal 25533 07-14-2011
You can verify these court cases here:
http://dw.courts.wa.gov/index.cfm?fa=home.cl...
Criminal offenses of Joshua Daniel Scurry and Anna Marie Scurry
Here are additional records we located with the help a private investigator:
February, 2007 - NEGLIGENT DRIVING 1ST DEGREE / DRIVING WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE: Joshua Daniel Scurry
Plea: GUILTY
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/alive2012/...
June, 2007 - DRIVING WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Plea: GUILTY
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/alive2012/...
June, 2008 - DRIVING WHILE LICENSE SUSPENDED 2ND DEGREE
Dismissed with prejudice
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/alive2012/...
July, 2011 - DRIVING WHILE LICENSES SUSPENDED 3RD DEGREE
Issue disposition: COMMITTED
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/alive2012/...
Remember this criminal history when you keep in mind how this entire event was promoted with the language of "humanitarian aid" and global fundraising, and celebrating healing! Anna Scurry often signed her emails with, "When we are fully ALIVE the possibilities are infinite! How ALIVE are you?"
What you see here is only a fraction of what we have obtained
As usual, what you are reading is merely a small fraction of the full information we have received on Joshua Daniel Scurry and Anna Marie Scurry.
As we are the Wikileaks of the natural health industry, everybody who knows anything about these "Scurry" people is sending us documents, recordings, emails and more. We hardly have time to sort through it all, but what we've already seen in addition to the evidence shown here is shocking to say the least.
Meanwhile, we are being threatened and harassed by their attorney, who continues to attempt to silence us. We are going to take action with the Washington State Bar Association (http://www.wsba.org) to attempt to have this attorney disbarred if we continue to be harassed by her. She, just like the Scurries, has vastly underestimated the truth of the situation and is acting in outright violation of the codes of conduct for Washington State attorneys. By now, even she should realize we have the ability and the intent to file detailed complaints against her.
Our articles on this matter are supported by the facts, they are in the public interest and they are protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Anyone trying to threaten NaturalNews into silence is seriously barking up the wrong tree. We represent the free press of the natural health industry, and we will not be silenced by criminals.
Our promise: If we continue to be harassed by the Scurry's attorney or defamed with yet more lies from the Scurries themselves, we will respond by going public with yet more selections from the evidence we have acquired.
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