A Wisconsin woman was charged on June 22 with felony theft for allegedly pocketing $80,000 her charity collected to support honor flights of military veterans to Washington, D.C. Joni Nogay, 60, faces up to 10 years in prison and $25,000 in fines if convicted. Prosecutors allege that Nogay collected $100,000 from her charity, “We Run—They Fly,” which conducts an annual 5K run in Milwaukee in support of the flights, but deposited the funds in her personal account and only disbursed $20,000 of it to the Stars and Stripes Honor Flights between 2013 and 2023.
Nogay’s attorney, Daniel Morgan Adams, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she's "dead set on making everyone harmed in this controversy whole. Joni Nogay had every intention of being a community servant, and one thing led to another," he said. "She is ready to make good on this situation.”
Milwaukee-based Stars and Stripes was founded in 2008 and since then has flown more than 8,000 veterans to Washington. It is part of the National Honor Flight Network that, since 2005, has flown more than 250,000 veterans, beginning with those who served in World War II, to see the memorials in the nation’s capital dedicated to their service.