NY Attorney General Sues to Shutdown Charity

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a lawsuit filed by his office to eliminate a “sham” charity, Coalition for Breast Cancer Cures, Inc.  A temporary restraining order was issued by a state judge ordering the charity to cease all solicitations, collections, and any document destruction.  The charity is operated by a husband and wife and includes other members of their family.  The lawsuit claims that the couple spent over $500,000 of the charity’s donations on extravagant shopping, travel, restaurants and other personal expenditures.  The lawsuit further alleges that the couple, along with their for-profit fundraising firm, falsely made solicitations and charged donors’ credit cards without authorization on numerous occasions.  The couple was not authorized to solicit charitable solicitations in New York.  Despite their representations to the contrary, the purported charity was not properly registered under New York law or with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3).

As with other charity scams, this case reinforces the importance of donors verifying that their donations are being legally solicited under the state’s law and that the charity is properly created and registered both with the the state and the Internal Revenue Service.

NAM