Blair Wynkoop Pleads Guilty to Stealing $250K from AIDS Charity

Blair Wynkoop, 58, of Portland, Oregon, has pled guilty to stealing more than $250,000 from a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with HIV and AIDS. The former executive director admitted to funneling charitable donations into his own pockets through a series of unauthorized checks and wire transfers, leaving vulnerable beneficiaries in the dark while he lived off the funds.

Wynkoop entered his guilty plea in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on a single count of interstate transportation of stolen property. U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips and Norbert E. Vint, Deputy Inspector General for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), confirmed the plea, which exposes Wynkoop to a prison sentence of 24 to 46 months under federal guidelines. Sentencing is scheduled for March 17, 2017, before Judge Reggie B. Walton.

The nonprofit, referred to in court documents as “Company A,” operated as a consortium of independent charities and acted as a pass-through for donations to member organizations. From 2008 to 2010, Wynkoop maintained the appearance of legitimacy, ensuring most contributions were properly distributed. But by 2010, he began diverting funds, exploiting his control over the organization’s finances.

Court filings reveal that Wynkoop wrote checks to himself and executed wire transfers from the charity’s accounts without authorization. To cover his tracks, he provided the part-time bookkeeper with falsified expense justifications—paper trails built on lies. Many of the so-called expenses never occurred, and internal oversight failed to catch the fraud for years.

As part of the plea agreement, Wynkoop has agreed to pay $425,249 in restitution to the defrauded charities and must satisfy a forfeiture money judgment. The additional amount beyond the $250,000 theft reflects accumulated interest, investigative costs, and penalties tied to the prolonged concealment of the crime.

U.S. Attorney Phillips and Deputy Inspector General Vint credited Special Agent Christopher Sulhoff of the OPM Inspector General’s Office for leading the investigation. They also recognized former Document Management Analyst John Lowell, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Swanton, who is handling forfeiture, and Peter C. Lallas, the prosecutor on the case, for their roles in holding Wynkoop accountable.