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Former state Rep. Mike Veon's nonprofit empire contained yet a fifth organization to which he funneled state money, some of it in violation of state guidelines for grants.

State officials recently learned that Beaver County Sports and Recreation, an association that received $450,000 in state money over three years, was not eligible for two grants totaling $200,000.

The money earmarked for youth athletics in Beaver County apparently was sent to the home of Dennis Rousseau, a Beaver County labor leader whose address appears on organizational filings.

Rousseau, a friend of Veon's who ran unsuccessfully for Veon's seat last fall, did not respond to calls for comment. He previously told the Tribune-Review he had been appointed without his consent to the board of another nonprofit linked to Veon.

Veon, the former Democratic House whip who lost his seat in 2006, is awaiting trial on 59 counts of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest in a public corruption investigation that followed the awarding of bonuses to legislative staffers in 2006. The Attorney General's Office is investigating both political parties in the House and Senate for allegedly using state resources for political purposes.

Neither Veon nor his Pittsburgh attorney, Robert Del Greco, returned calls seeking comment.

Beaver County Sports and Recreation and three other nonprofits grew out of the nonprofit Beaver Initiative for Growth. Veon and former state Sen. Gerald LaValle formed, controlled and funded the Beaver Initiative for Growth with $10.6 million in state money.

The five groups -- three others were Lend-A-Hand Network, Beaver Race Initiative Development Group Effort and Beaver County Community Service and Development -- collected nearly $13 million in state grants before voters ousted Veon.

A spokesman for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, which oversees grant programs, confirmed three grants totaling $300,000 -- two $100,000 awards to the sports group, and $100,000 to the community service group -- were given in 2004 and 2005 even though the nonprofits did not qualify for them.

DCED spokesman Steve Weitzman said the two groups filed applications saying they were nonprofits. But neither formed under the state's nonprofit laws, as the grant program required, and the agency never checked.

"We relied on the representations that they gave us," Weitzman said.

He declined to discuss what, if any, penalties the organizations could face, but said the agency is reviewing the grants.

"It's not over yet," he said, adding the agency has recommended the two groups incorporate.

Weitzman said the department revised its grant approval process.

"The likelihood of this happening again is minimal," he said.

Robert Maranto, a political scientist on leave from Villanova University to take an education post at the University of Arkansas, is skeptical. Maranto said the battle for control of public resources always has been part of Pennsylvania's political culture.

"We've always seen politics in Pennsylvania as a battle over who gets what resources, and not as a way to serve the public interest. And as long as you have that attitude, these things will happen," he said.

"It begins and starts with voters. Where voters punish those who abuse the process, politicians act better; where they tolerate it, politicians sink to a lower common denominator," Maranto said.

It's unlikely the two Beaver County groups will incorporate, because their parent organization is ending.

The Beaver Initiative for Growth is shuttering its operations. Lend a Hand and the Race Initiative have spent the last of their funds.

"The closedown ... is definitely under way. The process for closure was started and appropriate papers for dissolution are being filed. ... Within the next couple of months, all reporting will be complete with (the state) and the IRS," Beaver Initiative for Growth's financial director, Cynthia Vannoy, said in an e-mail last month.

Vannoy, who was volunteer treasurer for other organizations with ties to Veon, said the last of Beaver County Sports and Recreation's funds -- $250,000 -- was a matching grant for a $250,000 Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant that is being used to renovate two Beaver Falls youth baseball fields.

Federal tax documents from 2007, the most recent filings available, show the sports group spent $27,675 in 2007: $1,058 for recreation committee activities in Freedom; $1,500 for equipment for the Divine Mercy Boosters; $4,040 in equipment for Beaver Falls High School; $2,500 for field plans for Beaver Falls Recreation; and $18,577 for field specifications and engineering plans for Rochester High School.

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