Wrong address steers checks toward trouble
Authorities say a man tried to steal money meant for a nonprofit.
By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN
Published March 11, 2005
TAMPA - A Finnish national has been arrested and accused of stealing money from the Gold Shield Foundation, which provides financial aid and scholarships for children of fallen police officers and firefighters.
The arrest came after a printing error directed mail and donations intended for the nonprofit group into the man's Tampa post office box, Secret Service officials said Thursday.
Timo Tilvis, 33, who has been living in Beverly Hills illegally, will likely be deported, said John Joyce, special agent in charge for the U.S. Secret Service in Tampa.
According to Joyce, the Gold Shield Foundation sent out letters to its supporters soliciting donations.
Because of a printing error, two numbers in the five-digit post office box address were transposed, prompting mail to be delivered to Tilvis, Joyce said.
Authorities say Tilvis received letters and three checks totaling more than $1,000. Among the checks was a $500 contribution from State Attorney Mark Ober, said Ober's spokeswoman, Pam Bondi.
Tilvis created a fictitious corporation called Gold Shield of Tampa Bay, "which is close enough to the Gold Shield Foundation where he can negotiate these checks," Joyce said.
In November, an informer called the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, which turned the case over to the Secret Service, Joyce said. "We consider ourselves very fortunate," Joyce said, "because this is something we believe would have continued, because the people who write the checks would never have known and the Gold Shield Foundation would never have known."
Joyce said that although Tilvis is suspected of having stolen a relatively small amount, the effects were felt by many.
"It really struck me and the officers here personally because we had an agent that died last November, and the Gold Shield Foundation was a first source of help for his family," Joyce said.
Joyce was referring to 30-year-old Phillip Lebid, killed when a Brandon man sped off the Crosstown Expressway into downtown Tampa, ramming the federal agent's unmarked car into an oncoming bus filled with cruise-bound tourists.
Tilvis was being held at the immigrant detention center in Manatee County.