New York, May 20 (IANS): The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the attorney generals of all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the US have filed a joint lawsuit against four anti-cancer charities for defrauding donors of $187 million, Efe news agency reported.
According to the suit filed in an Arizona court on Tuesday, Cancer Fund of America, Children's Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services and The Breast Cancer Society are all fraudulent beneficent organisations that swindled its donors non-stop between 2008 and 2012, the New York Attorney General's Office said in a communique.
Two of the organisations implicated and the three individuals who direct them have accepted the basis of an accord previously offered by the plaintiffs that includes payment of $137 million, dissolution of the organisations and a strict rule that their directors may never again work for charitable organisations.
The lawsuit continues for the rest of the defendants.
The complaint considers the case to be dealing with a massive nationwide fraud, since the accused spent most of the donations they received for their own benefit, hiding their underhanded activities from donors with accounting records designed to show that medications and other materials were being sent to developing countries.
"Cancer is a debilitating disease that impacts millions of Americans and their families every year. The defendants' egregious scheme effectively deprived legitimate cancer charities and cancer patients of much-needed funds and support," Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said.
The note said that some 85 percent of donations went to professional fundraisers, while the rest went to pay salaries for the directors, who hired friends and family members to help simulate charitable operations.
The suit says that among the ways the accused spent their ill-gotten gains were on Caribbean cruises, trips to Disney World, tickets to concerts and dating site memberships. The defendants used a mere three percent of the funds for charity work.