BUSTED!!!!! Philip J. Gibson of “Love Outreach Fellowship,” you are a scumbag for trying to exploit veterans and using a bogus non-profit to try and get people to give money to you!

I have “zero” instincts when it comes to judging people. I assume everyone is wonderful and if they are not – it usually bites me in the ass later. My husband is the one who balances me out in that department. This local heart doctor who supposedly did some internship work in Iraq and now had a heart for veterans, wanted to build an apartment complex for wounded veterans who wanted to go to school full-time. Sounded like a fabulous project with my name all over it! Being a huge troop supporter, of course I was interested! A friend of mine referred me to him when he was approached about people coming on board for this business venture. Phil was looking for a PR/media manager who supported the troops and understood a lot about how military things work… and I fit the bill.

I Googled the “Dr.” before our first meeting which was actually a supposed “job interview.” Something about him did not sit right as I could not find him anywhere on the internet (maybe a different spelling I was unaware of). I even had 2 of the best web surfing friends I know Google him and they came up empty too. After our meeting he told me how he and his friend invented some awesome heart thing, so I went home and Googled him some more. I even called Johns Hopkins where he supposedly did his heart training and came up negative! I asked for $80K and he said I was hired but he could not pay me now and that I would have to put some sweat equity into the business. Hmmmmm….. I agreed to meet him again even though I was uneasy about him, and met him alone on the blighted property of the “soon to be home for wounded veterans.” He also drove me around Algiers to show me the area as I was unfamiliar with it. Meanwhile my business partner had been doing some more Googling on him and things really did not sit right. The non-profit turned up to have the address at an abandoned steak house. Phil was pushing me to commit to upcoming press conferences and really pushy about needing me to come aboard immediately with sweat equity. Following my request for his resume to better understand a potential client, my former biz partnerĀ stepped in and proposed we invoice him through our company with a contract and 3 months gratis work – we never heard from him again. Today Ed Twittered me this news story and I was not surprised at all. I called the friend who referred me and he had got wind that something was not right with this guy either.

Phew – for once my instincts served me right! I would have put my face out there for him and asked people to donate to his bogus charity and ruined any credibility I had as a military resource. I hope they throw the book at him!

Previous news stories about this can be found here, here and here.

Update 11/30 Great blog post about this on NOLA Defender.

4 Replies to “Indicted trying to exploit veterans: Philip J. Gibson”

  1. Greta,
    When you spoke about this with me quite a while ago, you had a feeling something wasn’t kosher. Didn’t seem so to me either. The old adage usually holds, & we talked about it. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. Glad this sleaze was found out. Hope too many good people didn’t buy into his great deal. You handled the situation wisely.
    Love, Mom

  2. The immediate clue was that you couldn’t find any record of him being a physician. You can find almost all physicians –even if they didn’t put themselves on Healthgrades or one of the other patient input rankings online. A call into the state medical licensing board would have been my next step. Cardiologists and other specialities do have their own licensing board. A call into their would have been another step.

    However, let’s say you did find this client on Health grades. If it still didn’t feel right, you could have tried to secure a photograph through a few sources –first the hospital listed on the Health grades report, then the state licensing board to match things up, as well as with the specialty boards. After this, go over to Johns Hopkins –ask for a photo. Are they one and the same?

    Still, even if all of his credentials would have been legit, if there was a lack of a business plan, then this would have been enough to let it drop.
    Glad you found out early. This guy is a class A scammer.

  3. @anonymous What threw me off is John Hopkins told me that it is possible for him to have been there under research and he might not show up in the database. And for want he “supposedly” did now for work, he said it was with insurance companies and he did not have an office. Yes, licensing board would have been a good move. Live and learn!

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