WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) -- A California faith-based non-profit group is denying it did anything wrong by selling two donated decommissioned Coast Guard cutters for a profit.
Canvasback Missions in Benicia, Calif., took possession of the cutters, the White Sage and the White Holly, in Baltimore in September 1999 as the result of an "earmark" in an unrelated congressional bill inserted by former Rep. Frank Riggs, R-Calif., the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The charity had planned to use the ships to provide medical services to the impoverished in South Pacific islands, but ran into financial difficulties, its founder, Jamie Spence, told the Times.
The group sold one cutter to a maritime equipment company, which then resold it to a pig farmer in Nicaragua. The other cutter was sold to a San Francisco-area couple who rent it for eco-tours and marine research, the report said.
Normally, decommissioned Coast Guard ships are either sold at auction, included in foreign aid packages or added to the mothball fleet, the report said.
While Spence acknowledged he never notified the Coast Guard about the sales, he denied any wrongdoing.
"We did everything in our power to put these ships into service," he said.
