# 4 "Charities" shut down
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 19, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376 "2015-05-19T17:15:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/1 "2015-05-19T17:15:13Z")
I hope this isn’t behind a paywall: [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/business/4-cancer-charities-accused-in-ftc-fraud-case.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/business/4-cancer-charities-accused-in-ftc-fraud-case.html)
> [@](#):
>
> In soliciting donations through telemarketing calls and direct-mail, the F.T.C. complaint says, the charities described specific uses for the money they solicited, like transporting patients to and from chemotherapy or purchasing pain medication for children. “These were lies,” the complaint says, and the money went to the people running the charities for expenses like gym memberships, college tuition and dating website subscriptions. “Donations have enriched a small group of individuals.”
I have received dozens of calls over the past year or so from specifically these charities, as I recognize their names. They are in the class of “if you question anything, they get abusive and/or hang up on you.” Ask for an IRS Form 990, which any legitimate charity would be glad to provide, and they terminate the conversation.
Reading between the lines of that news article, it looks like the perpetrators won’t be prosecuted, won’t give back any money, and will be free to do it again, even though one dude is barred from this kind of activity. I don’t think it will stop him; he’ll just move offshore and change his name. And since they “settled,” the details won’t be made public.
They raised $187 million from suckers, and sent less than 3% of that to charitable causes, unless you call dating website subscriptions a charitable cause. I wonder how many yachts J.R. has.
> [@](#):
>
> The charities — the Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services, Children’s Cancer Fund of America and the Breast Cancer Society — were created and controlled by the same network of people and led by James Reynolds Sr., the F.T.C. says.
Is this the best the FTC can do?
---
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/2 "2015-05-19T17:51:43Z")
The Cancer Fund of America has been coming and going for decades. The authorities can’t seem to get it shut down.
---
### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/3 "2015-05-19T17:55:45Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> The Cancer Fund of America has been coming and going for decades. The authorities can’t seem to get it shut down.
A lot like Whack-A-Mole, eh?
---
### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/4 "2015-05-19T17:55:45Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> I have received dozens of calls over the past year or so from specifically these charities
If they’re soliciting via telemarketing, you can take it as a given that it’s a scam.
---
### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/5 "2015-05-19T17:56:34Z")
I’ve gotten donation solicitations from some “veteran’s group” and a “highway patrol” group. They called and asked if they could send me stuff in the mail and I said yes, then when I got the materials and did some research I could tell they were clearly fake.
These groups suck because they make people leery of donating to real organizations. They make it hard for anyone to trust charities!
I did get surprisingly good stickers from the veterans and state trooper charities, though. I expected the state trooper sticker to fade within a month and it’s been bright yellow for 2 years now!
---
### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/6 "2015-05-19T17:59:29Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#):
>
> If they’re soliciting via telemarketing, you can take it as a given that it’s a scam.
I never had any doubts.
---
### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/7 "2015-05-19T18:02:15Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> The Cancer Fund of America has been coming and going for decades. The authorities can’t seem to get it shut down.
Indeed, it’s metastasized.
---
### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/8 "2015-05-19T19:12:57Z")
A several 9/11 Charities, including some that still run and get money, are essentially just income for the people who run them.
---
### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/9 "2015-05-19T19:21:42Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> A lot like Whack-A-Mole, eh?
If they cut off one head, two more shall take its place…
---
### Author:  [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/10 "2015-05-19T19:25:14Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> Indeed, it’s metastasized.
Take off and irradiate the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure
---
### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/11 "2015-05-19T19:25:47Z")
For years, I’ve wanted a 50% rule: if 50% or more of the funds a ‘charity’ raises goes to fundraising, managerial salaries, and overhead, then they lose their tax-exempt status.
---
### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/12 "2015-05-19T19:53:59Z")
I just hope the Human Fund was able to fly under the radar.
---
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/13 "2015-05-19T20:05:35Z")
Why anybody agrees to donate over the phone is a mystery to me. I won’t even donate to organizations that I know and trust via phone, because people can claim to be anything.
---
### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/14 "2015-05-19T20:13:39Z")
Here’s [another article](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/ftc-family-raised-187m-cancer-spent-31150064) with more information.
> [@](#):
>
> The settlement agreement imposed hefty judgments based on the amount of money donated to the charities between 2008 and 2012. But because of Perkins’ “inability to pay,” her $30 million judgment would be suspended entirely. The $65.5 million judgment against Reynolds II would be suspended after he pays $75,000.
>
> Effler, former president of Cancer Support Services, faced a $41 million judgment that would be forgiven after paying $60,000.
Could someone explain to me, using small words, what the white chocolate FUCK is going on there?
Forget the judgment amounts… how is what they did not fraud? Or grand larceny? Why is nobody going to jail over this?
---
### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-charities-shut-down/720376/15 "2015-05-19T20:24:07Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> Here’s [another article](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/ftc-family-raised-187m-cancer-spent-31150064) with more information.
>
> Could someone explain to me, using small words, what the white chocolate FUCK is going on there?
>
> Forget the judgment amounts… how is what they did not fraud? Or grand larceny? Why is nobody going to jail over this?
I’m guessing a 3-way split between Perkins, Reynolds, and somebody at the FTC.
Seriously, I also want to know how in the hell this isn’t a federal fraud case.