JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The board of Wounded Warrior Project, one of the nation's largest veteran support groups, has fired two top officials amid news reports accusing the group of wasteful spending. 
 
 According to a statement released late Thursday on behalf of Wounded Warrior Project, chief executive officer Steve Nardizzi and chief operating officer Al Giordano are no longer with the organization. 
 
 The Wounded Warrior Project board of directors had hired outside legal counsel and forensic accounting consultants to conduct an independent review of the Jacksonville-based organization's records and interviews with current and former employees. 
 
 In late January, CBS News and The New York Times reported the organization spent too much on its own staff. According to those reports, Wounded Warrior Project spends 40 to 50 percent of its money on overhead — including extravagant parties — while other veterans charities have overhead costs of 10 to 15 percent. 
 
 They also interviewed former employees who accused the organization of making money off their injuries. One former employee said the way Wounded Warrior Project spends money is equivalent to "what the military calls fraud, waste and abuse." 
 
 The independent review found that Wounded Warrior Project's most recent audited financial statement showed the organization spent 80.6 percent of donations on programming, and that an employee conference at a resort reported to have cost $3 million actually cost about $970,000, according to the board's statement. 
 
 However, the organization would cut back on events such as the employee conference, as the review also found that some policies and procedures "have not kept pace with the organization's rapid growth in recent years and are in need of strengthening," the board said. 
 
 The organization also is putting limits on employee travel and expenses, and its financial statements will be independently audited and posted on the Wounded Warrior Project's website, the board said. 
 
 To help restore trust and move forward with the changes, the board decided to remove Nardizzi and Giordano and create an Office of the CEO to oversee Wounded Warrior Project on an interim basis. The office will be led by board chairman Anthony Odierno and senior members of the existing executive team. 
 
 "It is now time to put the organization's focus directly back on the men and women who have so bravely fought for our country and who need our support," Odierno said. 
 
 According to the board's statement, participation in Wounded Warrior Project programs for injured veterans, their caregivers and family members rose from 1,850 to 144,000 from 2010 to 2015. ||||| A CBS News investigation into a charity for wounded veterans, the Wounded Warrior Project, looks into how the charity spends its donation money. 
 
 What caught our attention is how the Wounded Warrior Project spends donations compared to other long-respected charities. 
 
 For example, Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust spends 96 percent of its budget on vets. Fisher House devotes 91 percent. But according to public records reported by "Charity Navigator," the Wounded Warrior Project spends 60 percent on vets. 
 
 Where is the money is going? 
 
 In its commercials, Wounded Warrior Project appeals to the American public's generosity, and it works. In 2014 alone the group received more than $300 million in donations. 
 
 Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette CBS News 
 
 "Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn't see is how they spend their money," said Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette. 
 
 Millette came home from Iraq in 2006 with a bronze star and a purple heart -- along with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD. 
 
 Initially, he admired the charity's work, and participated in its programs. He took a job as a public speaker with Wounded Warrior Project in 2013. But after two years, he quit. 
 
 "You're using our injuries, our darkest days, our hardships, to make money. So you can have these big parties," he told CBS News. 
 
 Millette said he witnessed lavish spending on staff. 
 
 "Let's get a Mexican mariachi band in there, let's get maracas made with [the] WWP logo, put them on every staff member's desk. Let's get it catered and have a big old party," he described. 
 
 "Going to a nice fancy restaurant is not team building. Staying at a lavish hotel at the beach here in Jacksonville, and requiring staff that lives in the area to stay at the hotel is not team building," Millette continued. 
 
 CBS News spoke to more than 40 former employees who described a charity where spending was out of control. 
 
 Two of those former employees were so fearful of retaliation they asked that their faces not to be shown on camera. 
 
 "It was extremely extravagant. Dinners and alcohol, and just total accessm" one employee explained. He continued, saying that for a charitable organization that's serving veterans, the spending on resorts and alcohol is "what the military calls fraud waste and abuse." 
 
 Wounded Warrior Project CEO Steven Nardizzi 
 
 According to the charity's tax forms, spending on conferences and meetings went from $1.7 million in 2010, to $26 million in 2014. That's about the same amount the group spends on combat stress recovery -- its top program. 
 
 Former employees say spending has skyrocketed since Steven Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009. Many point to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs as typical of his style. 
 
 "He rappelled down the side of a building at one of the all hands events. He's come in on a Segway, he's come in on a horse." 
 
 About 500 staff members attended the four-day conference in Colorado. The price tag? About $3 million. 
 
 "Donors don't want you to have a $2,500 bar tab. Donors don't want you to fly every staff member once a year to some five-star resort and whoop it up and call it team building," said Millette. 
 
 A Colorado Springs resort where a 2014 WWP conference was held 
 
 Wounded Warrior Project declined CBS News' repeated interview requests for Nardizzi, but offered their Director of Alumni and a recipient of their services, Captain Ryan Kules. 
 
 Kules denied there was excessive spending on conferences. 
 
 "It's the best use of donor dollars to ensure we are providing programs and services to our warriors and families at the highest quality." 
 
 When asked why conferences were held at five-star resorts instead of cheaper options, Kules provided the same answer. 
 
 Capt. Ryan Kules, WWP Director of Alumni CBS News 
 
 "Like I said, it's to make sure we are aligned and can build as a team. Be able to be able to provide the best quality services." 
 
 "WWP and those donor dollars trained me to speak and be a voice, and that's exactly what I'm doing," said Millette. 
 
 "I'm sorry, but I'll be damned if you're gonna take hard-working Americans' money and drink it and waste it." 
 
 Kules also told CBS News the charity did not spend $3 million on the Colorado conference, but he was not there and was unable to say what it did cost. He also denied that the charity spends money on alcohol or engages in any other kind of excessive spending. 
 
 Part two of this investigation will air on "CBS This Morning," Wednesday at 7 a.m. ET. ||||| Today, the charity has 22 locations offering programs to help veterans readjust to society, attend school, find work and participate in athletics. It contributes millions to smaller veterans groups. And it has become a brand name, its logo emblazoned on sneakers, paper towel packs and television commercials that run dozens of times. 
 
 But in its swift rise, it has also embraced aggressive styles of fund-raising, marketing and personnel management that have many current and former employees questioning whether it has drifted from its mission. 
 
 It has spent millions a year on travel, dinners, hotels and conferences that often seemed more lavish than appropriate, more than four dozen current and former employees said in interviews. Former workers recounted buying business-class seats and regularly jetting around the country for minor meetings, or staying in $500-per-night hotel rooms. 
 
 The organization has also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years on public relations and lobbying campaigns to deflect criticism of its spending and to fight legislative efforts to restrict how much nonprofits spend on overhead. 
 
 About 40 percent of the organization’s donations in 2014 were spent on its overhead, or about $124 million, according to the charity-rating group Charity Navigator. While that percentage, which includes administrative expenses and marketing costs, is not as much as for some groups, it is far more than for many veterans charities, including the Semper Fi Fund, a wounded-veterans group that spent about 8 percent of donations on overhead. As a result, some philanthropic watchdog groups have criticized the Wounded Warrior Project for spending too heavily on itself.
– The board of Wounded Warrior Project, one of the nation's largest veteran support groups, has fired two top officials amid news reports accusing the group of wasteful spending, the AP reports. According to a statement released late Thursday on behalf of the group, CEO Steve Nardizzi and COO Al Giordano are no longer with the organization. The Wounded Warrior Project's board of directors had hired outside legal counsel and forensic accounting consultants to conduct an independent review of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based organization's records and interviews with current and ex-employees. In late January, CBS News and the New York Times reported the organization spends 40% to 50% of its money on overhead—including extravagant parties—while other veterans charities have overhead costs of 10% to 15%. The review found that the group's most recent audited financial statement showed the organization spent 80.6% of donations on programming, and that an employee conference at a resort reported to have cost $3 million actually cost about $970,000, according to the board's statement. However, the organization says it will cut back on events such as the employee conference and is putting limits on employee travel and expenses; financial statements will be independently audited and posted on the group's website, the board said. A newly created Office of the CEO, led by board chairman Anthony Odierno, will oversee the Wounded Warrior Project on an interim basis. "It is now time to put the organization's focus directly back on the men and women who have so bravely fought for our country and who need our support," Odierno says.