The Federal Trade Commission and 58 law enforcement groups across the United States have shut down four sham cancer charities that bilked over $187 million from consumers.
The groups used telemarketing calls, direct mail, websites, and materials distributed by the Combined Federal Campaign, which raises money from federal employees for non-profit organizations, to appear legitimate while claiming to provide pain medication, transportation to chemotherapy and hospice care. But mostly it was just paying family and friends and funding their lifestyles.
The groups' president, James Reynolds Sr., is also banned from profiting from any charity fundraising in the future. Reynolds and his family members bilked the money from donors. Two charities have now permanently closed, and their assets have been liquidated. The judgment against the remaining two, and Reynolds, was $76 million, the amount consumers donated between 2008 and 2012. The other two charities settled in May 2015.
