He was also known to be notoriously frugal. The attorney, whose focus was on business and tax-planning services, quickly picked up on Kahn’s reputation as a strong personality-stubborn, opinionated, socially awkward, and somewhat of a loner. Terry Kahn was a founding board member, representing Roudebush VA Medical Center, where he served as chief of human resources. Isaacs was the foundation’s new attorney. Isaacs met Terence Kahn in the mid-1990s through The Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis, a grant-making entity formed in 1985 from proceeds of the Metro Health HMO sale. Sheehan and Markle, on the other hand, were among the donees who did their homework and quickly discovered that the caller, Dwayne Isaacs, was indeed an attorney with the firm Dentons Bingham Greenebaum. More importantly, he represented a 78-year-old benefactor from the south side of Indianapolis who had recently died, leaving instructions to give away all of his money. There had to be a catch, right? In fact, a few of the nonprofits that received messages from the attorney with the no-strings-attached offer never even returned his calls. They needed only to submit a few pages describing how the money would be used and sign a simple one-page agreement. Each organization was assured that there would be no lengthy application process to slog through, no need to turn in annual reports or financial disclosures. Over the course of roughly a year, more than a dozen Indianapolis nonprofits would hear from the same attorney saying he was distributing funds on behalf of an estate. Sheehan and Markle weren’t alone in their sudden good fortune. “I didn’t care how much money it was,” Markle says. The Hoosier chapter is a bare-bones operation where volunteers carry out this mission without a brick-and-mortar headquarters-just a post office box. Folds of Honor is a national nonprofit that provides scholarships to spouses and children of fallen service members. Yet she, too, wondered if this unexpected proposal could be legit. To Markle, the conversation felt a little too far-fetched, a little too “ Oh yeah, I have a buddy who’s got millions,” she says. ![]() The person on the other end of the line was calling about a potentially large donation to Folds of Honor Indiana, a veterans’ organization where Markle volunteered. Her unsolicited offer came on a blustery morning in late January 2022 after she pulled into a parking garage off Monument Circle, on her way to a meeting. Three months later, Diane Markle, then a personal banker at the downtown Star Financial Bank, received a similar spiel from the same mysterious caller. First … what if this is a scam? And second … what if it’s not? ![]() As she eased herself into a patio chair, two questions immediately came to mind. “He called at the perfect time, just as we were engaged in conversation about how to grow the organization,” Sheehan recalls. Margaret Sheehan of Teachers’ Treasures and attorney Dwayne Isaacs.
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