New Mexico attorney general joins crackdown on cancer charity scams

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has joined with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, all 50 states and the District of Columbia in a complaint charging four sham caner charities and their operators with defrauding customers more than $187 million.

The defendants told donors their money would help cancer patients, including children and also women suffering from breast cancer.

Cancer Fund of America (CFA), Cancer Support Services (CSS), The Children’s Cancer Fund of America (CCFOA) and the Breast Cancer Society are the defendants named in the federal court complaint.

According to the complaint, the defendants used telemarketing calls, direct mail, websites and materials distributed by the Combined Federal Campaign, which raises money from federal employees for nonprofit organizations, to portray themselves as legitimate charities. They claimed the money would help cancer patients in the United States, such as providing them with pain medication, transportation to chemotherapy and hospice care.

Also, according to the complaint, the defendants used the organizations for lucrative employment for family members and friends, and spent donations on cars, trips, luxury cruises, college tuition, gym memberships, jet ski outings, sporting-event and concert tickets, and dating-site memberships. They hired professional fundraisers who often received 85 percent or more of every donation.

Thirty-six states alleged that the defendants filed false and misleading financial statements with the state charity regulators.