Dateline San Jose, CA, Aug. 3, 2007 (Exclusive to the www.mabuhayradio.com) —The "Citizens Rebelling Against Bogus Spending" (CRABS) reports that Ben Menor will finally have his day in court. The trial of California vs. Ben Benedicto Menor has been scheduled to start on Monday, Dec. 3, 2007, at the Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose, California.

Ben Menor was to have appeared before the Santa Clara County Superior Court on June 13, 2007. He didn’t, so the Superior Court Judge forfeited his $30,000 bail.

Mr. Menor's next appearance to schedule his trial date was last Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007. He appeared with his Public-Defender attorneys. Judge Cunningham issued an additional $30,000 in bail.

On June 16, 2005, Auditors of the City of San Jose completed their audit and found over $219,000 of city funds were misspent and mismanaged by the Filipino American Senior Opportunities Development Council, Inc. (FilAmSODC)-- a Filipino agency contracting from the City of San Jose to provide services to low-income Filipino and other seniors, Filipino WWII Veterans, Filipino families and youth. Ben Menor was the council’s President and CEO.

Following on the Auditors’ report, a Santa Clara County Criminal Grand Jury was convened and on Nov. 16, 2006, this Grand Jury indicted Ben Menor on three (3) felony counts

Count one alleges Ben Menor of submitting a "fraudulently exaggerated report of his organization’s hours," and according to CRABS’ records over nine (9) months totaling well over $200,000.

Count two alleges that Ben Menor "embezzles thousands of dollars . . . between May 2003 and June 25, 2004, when he paid a FilAm employee with FilAm funds to provide full-time elder care to his parents who were in Mr. Menor’s home." For over fourteen (14) months, Ben Menor wrote and signed checks using city funds to pay a full-time employee to provide full in-home care for his parents who were residing with him.

The last count of felony alleges that Ben Menor "used over $14,000 of these funds to pay expenses related to a conference he hosted." The conference that was being referred to in the third count is the August 2002 National Federation of Filipino American Associations Conference (NaFFAA) which was held in San Jose. Ben Menor used funds from another grant, which was earmarked to provide services for low-income Filipino and other seniors, Filipino WWII Veterans, Filipino families and youth; and used it to help finance the NaFFAA conference in San Jose, California in August 2002.

On Dec. 3, 2007, Ben Menor will finally have his day in court.

And to recover the misused funds, the City of San Jose also filed a civil lawsuit against Ben Menor, the FilAmSODC’s Board of Directors and Does 1-100. The next court date for this lawsuit will be Oct. 19, 2007. ###

Bookmark this Article

Your Name / Email Address:

Please enter the above numbers