Has honor and integrity taken a back seat? You be the judge

When I started my mission to Honor Them over 2 years ago, it was a personal one. While I admittedly was still trying to find my niche in how to accomplish this, I knew one thing above all else, Honor would be the prime focus. While I may have begun on Twitter, I soon branched out into Facebook and began this blog. My mission may have begun as a personal one, but not too long after I had people joining me in my endeavors. After some time it didn’t just become important to me, but became a part of who I am. That is why not a day will go by that I will not Honor the sacrifice paid by so many. This brings me to the purpose of this post.

There are some who sadly have chosen to use the death of our heroes for their own ill gotten gains. It’s really become an epidemic in today’s society. As unbelievable as it may seem, there are those who are worse offenders than others. Please, before you read on, I ask you all to consider the fact that I don’t normally call out any company and/or organization. In fact, I’ve never done so. I stick to my mission and ensure the families of the fallen are taken into consideration in all my efforts. Respect for them and all that they've endured is very important to me. However, there is one company who as I understand it, hasn’t done this in the past and my fear is they are repeating the same patterns.

Below you will see some information along with screen shots (please forgive the haziness of the images as I blew them up for ease of reading), which points to a pattern of behavior. It, in my opinion, not only appears to be dis-honorable, but calls into question this company’s true intentions. I’ve chosen to post this on my blog because the owner of this company either ignores or deletes anyone’s comments (on Facebook) who attempt to make an inquiry into the questionable activity. Furthermore, this company usually blocks those inquiring immediately after. So, I ask you to look at the information I’ve provided and draw your own conclusion.

First, as a matter of background, I contacted the publicist for the family of fallen US Navy SEAL, Lt. Michael Murphy and this is what she had to say:

As Publicist for the Family of LT Michael Murphy I was approached by John Stiener, the owner of Infidel USA on July 23, 2011 proposing a Murph The Protector t-shirt with ALL proceeds benefitting Michael’s Foundation.  By all accounts the shirt was a hit, but I would never know exactly because I was never given the sales figures as to what exactly was sold as promised.  After endless emails, text messages and phone calls asking for his payment to the Foundation, of which there had been only a few, I threatened to sue Infidel USA.  That is when John’s Mom called and intervened on his behalf.  She felt that it was unfair that 100% of the proceeds go to that Foundation and that John should be entitled to some.  I explained to her that the agreement had been otherwise and that the memorial tee was bringing him new business. I further explained that it was an agreement that he presented. Also, I reminded her that he was promoting the tee the whole time as benefiting Michael’s Foundation when in fact only a few payments had been made. A year and a half later NO accounting of sales had been made available to me and as it appears from this that John was using all the Murph The Protector profits to expand his company. This is by his own admission in communications with me.  Regardless of John’s promises to the foundation, John’s mom made the following agreement with me. She asked that she be given one week and she would provide me with the amount of shirts sold and the rest of the money owed to the Foundation.  In addition would I allow one last print run of the shirt before I terminated the agreement.  I told her that I would not make a decision on the last print run until the monies were paid and the accounting of all sales was provided to me.  Approximately one week later payment was made for what I was told was the sale figures of all the Murph t-shirts. However, I have no way of knowing this to be accurate or not as I was not provided with an accounting of the sales as promised.  John and his Mom requested that they be allowed to go ahead with one final print run of the shirt and with that we would part ways.  I agreed, with the understanding that the accounting of sales would be forthcoming. As I previously mentioned this still has not happened.   John only paid the foundation for part of this final print run.  I of course sent him countless emails and text messages as well as tried to call and collect the money, but to no avail.  I was forced to reimburse Michael’s Foundation with my own money as I felt responsible for making such a poor business decision. 

You may ask why the above information is relevant. Well, I ask you to read on, as its relevance will soon become clear. 

 On February 7, 2013 Infidel USA came out with a new t-shirt. See the Facebook post introducing this shirt by clicking on this LINK (If for some reason that link becomes invalid because the post has been deleted. I will update this post with a screen shot of the link). The t-shirt depicted the name of US Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle who was recently killed. The company states in their post as well as on their website that 100% of the proceeds with benefit Craft International and FITCO Cares. On the surface this seems like a wonderful idea, and one that I normally would be backing 100%. However, because I am so adamantly against anyone (not including the families) profiting from someone else's death, I simply cannot stand behind an organization which has proven in the past to take money under the pretense of funds going to an organization and then not following through with that promise. Case in point, the below screen shots.

SCREEN SHOT A: In this screen shot, the publicist for the family of Lt. Michael Murphy clarifies any misleading comments made by Infidel USA by explaining that Infidel USA “did NOT give all the money to Michael’s Foundation as promised.” And further she asks a few questions, one of them being, will her comment remain. Please see the next screen shot.

SCREEN SHOT B: As you’ll see here, minutes later not only is her comment removed, but someone else asks if what she wrote is true. Please see the next screen shot.

SCREEN SHOT C: As you can see here, Infidel USA has responded with the comment “Of course not.” However, regardless of their prompt reply, you will see in SCREENSHOT D (below) that Infidel USA deleted the question, as well as their response. Also, it appears they deleted one which states they are working with FITCO and Craft International. 

 

SCREEN SHOT D: Comments referencing any question of misuse of funds have been deleted. You can tell this by the new comments appearing below where other’s comments once were.

 

 

 

 

All of this may not seem like too much cause for concern in some of your opinions. However, I was sent the below screen shot (SCREEN SHOT E) which raises all sorts of red flags for me personally. As someone who supports our military and their families I make it a habit to only give to companies who are truly helping the families of our fallen heroes. Please note the placement of this comment. It was only on the page for a short time and promptly deleted once the publicist for the Murphy family left her comment. In this comment by Infidel USA they claim to have multiple veterans that work for their company. They also claim to have “athletes that worked with Chris in Ramadi.” At which point Infidel USA goes onto explain that those who worked with Chris came to them with the idea to do something. 

SCREEN SHOT E

If what he states is true, then why delete it? Or, as a matter of interest, why delete so many other comments as well? If Infidel USA truly has veterans who worked along side Chris Kyle in Ramadi working for him who asked him to take on this project, then why remove it once question is raised? Further, why would Infidel USA block people who have only asked questions? After all, they are only questions. If in fact Infidel USA’s only motivation is to help the families of the fallen, why not simply address the issues and rebuild their company's reputation? 

These are all things which trouble me and make me wonder where the funds for this shirt will really go. However, to be fair, I must state, I have not personally approached the company. I have chosen not to do so because of the numerous people that have approached them to only receive no response and then be blocked. I further would like to state that I am merely a concerned citizen and also 100% civilian. I do what I do because I choose to and while I normally would 'vet' a charity/organization before I decide to endorse them, sadly I don’t feel confident that any correspondence by me asking questions to Infidel USA would be met with anything other than ignoring and blocking me. 

My only concern is that the family of Chris Kyle is taken care of and this isn't going to be a repeat of what transpired with the Murph t-shirt. Other than that, I have no skin in the game, so to speak. The main purpose of my post is to ask everyone to truly consider the organization they are giving their money to before they do so. Just because someone claims to be on the up and up, doesn’t always mean that they are. This could be said for countless companies or organizations.

Once again, and in closing, this blog post contains what I have witnessed and have been able to ascertain from the events unfolding on a public social networking site. My statements are my own and contain my opinion on a matter that is near and dear to my heart. I do not know without 100% certainty whether or not the allegations against Infidel USA are factual because as best I can tell they refuse to respond to them. Perhaps in the future they will work with the companies they state they support to ensure all funds go where they are promised. I also hope that Infidel USA will make good on their promises made to the Murphy Foundation. If they choose not to do either of these things, I am left with no other alternative but to question their motivations and intentions between making products of this nature and selling them under the guise of "giving back" to charities.