Los Angeles (CNN) The veterans group that hosted Donald Trump for a speech this week on board a decommissioned battleship had its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS in August.

The group, Veterans for a Strong America, sounds like a charity, and in a press release touted having more than a half-million supporters across the U.S. In reality, it is a political action group whose tax-exempt status was revoked in August because it failed to file tax returns for the past three years. The group is appealing the decision. In addition, CNN has found scant evidence that Veterans for a Strong America has the supporters it says it does.

The Trump campaign said it did not know about the organization's issues until after the event. People paid between $100 and $1,000 to attend the speech on the U.S.S. Iowa.

The founder and chairman of VSA is a former Army officer named Joel Arends, who served in Iraq in 2004. He's an attorney and political consultant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where VSA is based. In its most recent filing this spring with the Federal Election Commission, the organization reported it had $30 in the bank and owed $318 to a Washington consulting firm.

CNN was unable to reach Arends for comment, but VSA sent a statement which reads in part, "Veterans for A Strong America consulted with top legal counsel and the event hosted by the organization with presidential candidate Donald Trump was planned and conducted in full compliance with all applicable law. There are some paperwork glitches related to a predecessor organization and VSA is in the process of sorting those out."

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