“You know, somebody along the line — and again, this is all stuff that are being looked into, to show and get that taken care of. Because, again, I wasn’t alone on this,” Mr. Santos said, even as he maintained that he handled the bulk of charity’s operations.
“I was the guy picking up poop, cleaning, getting people, doing campaigns online,” he said. “But we had a broader group of folks who helped out.”
Ms. Spadavecchia was not the only person to raise concerns about how Mr. Santos was handling Friends of Pets United’s funds. In late 2016, GoFundMe received a complaint about a fund-raiser that Mr. Santos operated to help a veteran, Richard Osthoff, raise money for his dog’s surgery, a spokesman said.
Mr. Osthoff, whose encounter with Mr. Santos was reported earlier by the local news site Patch, has not responded to requests for an interview. But a friend, Michael Boll, who became involved in the situation, provided screenshots of text messages between Mr. Santos and Mr. Osthoff.
According to Mr. Boll, Mr. Osthoff learned that his dog, Sapphire, had a tumor that required $3,000 of surgery. At the time, Mr. Osthoff, 47, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and living in a tent, Mr. Boll said.
A veterinary technician named Andrea Dos Santos connected Mr. Osthoff to Mr. Santos, saying that Friends of Pets United could probably provide support.
