Fayetteville man arrested in theft from nonprofit

Vets village lost thousands since 2016, president claims

A Fayetteville man arrested in the theft of thousands of dollars from a nonprofit organization told authorities he stole the money to pay scammers who targeted him for blackmail, according to documents filed Thursday.

Martin J. Svoboda II, 72, was arrested Jan. 2 on three counts of theft of property, according to the Benton County jail’s online inmate roster.

Cindy Ford is the president of Arkansas Veterans Village, which provides transitional housing to homeless veterans, according to the group’s Facebook page. Ford reported in December she was notified by Arvest Bank that one of their accounts had a negative balance of $7,000, according to a probable cause affidavit. She told Rogers police the account should have between $63,000 to $64,000 in it.

Ford told police Svoboda, the nonprofit’s treasurer, had access to all of the group’s accounts, according to the affidavit. Ford said Svoboda had been using the organization’s checks and making them out to himself for personal items such as electric bills and other expenses not related to the nonprofit. She said Svoboda had apparently been taking the money since 2016, and he was reporting that all the group’s accounts were up to date with the correct amount of money in them, according to the affidavit.

Ford emailed Svoboda and told him he was no longer treasurer and he need to return all of the organization’s property, according to the affidavit.

Svoboda admitted to police in December taking $150,000. He said he was aware the nonprofit’s bylaws did not allow him to use the money for personal expenses.

He told the detectives he was scammed and his identity had been stolen. He said he used the organization’s money to pay his expenses because of the scam.

Svoboda said scammers blackmailed him in October into paying them money with bitcoin or else they would ruin his life by posting digitally altered nude photographs of him, according to the affidavit.

Svoboda said he used the nonprofit’s money to pay the blackmail, but he also used $41,000 of his own money to pay back the organization, according to the affidavit.

Police found 125 Arkansas Veterans Village checks made out to Svoboda, and all of them except two were marked for deposit in his personal bank accounts. The checks totaled $105,935, the affidavit states.

Svoboda was being held in the jail Friday with a $25,000 bond set.

His arraignment is set for 8 a.m. Feb. 12 in Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren’s court.