Four Children's Charities Out Millions By Embezzlement

by Gary Snyder

1.           Robert Mays was the executive director of the Jersey City Child Development Centers from Sept. 2013 to May 2014.  He stole more than $200,000 from a Jersey City nonprofit that aids underprivileged children, the U.S. attorney charged. The nonprofit has received more than $8 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
2.           An indictment alleges between December 2008 and May 2012, that two men ran Children and Family Services Inc. (later called Children’s Charitable Services Inc.), a telemarketing company that fraudulently solicited charitable donations via telephone calls from an office in Florida. They allegedly instructed employees to fraudulently tell potential donors living in other states that the employees were volunteers and that all proceeds helped children in the state where the potential donor lived. The indictment further states that they intentionally used a charity name that was similar to a state agency and failed to disclose that their organizations had been previously sanctioned in other states for fraudulent solicitations. The indictment alleges that more than $1.2 million raised as charitable donations went to pay the defendants’ and employees’ salaries, business expenses, and one’s personal expenses.
3.          A North Carolina woman and her mother have been indicted on federal charges that they defrauded more than $574,000 from a charity, Send Thee Community Outreach, designed to feed low-income children. Cindy Hall and her mother, Stephanie Almond, falsified documents and exaggerated the number of children being fed through their Suffolk nonprofit in order to get more federal funds, which they used to buy vehicles and pay personal expenses, according to the indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court. The women falsely claimed they served more than 80,000 breakfasts, 117,000 lunches and 6,000 dinners during that time, according to the indictment. Then the women altered the tally sheets, forged signatures and inflated the number of children served, according to the indictment. The indictment says the women sometimes submitted meal counts for reimbursement even when they didn't feed any children at a given site. The nonprofit also asked for reimbursement to pay employees. If there were any employees, they were never paid, the document says.
4.  4.  After committing "extensive criminal acts" at the Fox Lake police Explorers program, a youth group, an Illinois cop" carefully staged his suicide." He had been stealing and laundering money through the program, funneling "thousands of dollars" for personal purposes — including gym memberships, adult websites and loans to associates, Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Commander George Filenko told reporters. His death came amid increasing levels of personal stress from scrutiny of his management of the youth group. (source)

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Charity Navigator, Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio (NPR), Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), “Betrayal”, (a movie), NBC (on Charity Fraud…TBD), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Marie Claire, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, Charity Navigator, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, Board Room Insider, USA Today Topics, Accountants News, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times, Portfolio Magazine, The Virgin Islands Daily News, NANKAI (China) BUSINESS REVIEW, National Religious Broadcasters newsletter, The Charity Governance Blog, American Chronicle, Palm Beach Post, Detroit Free Press, Oakland Press, Nonprofit World, Socially Responsible Business Forum, PNNOnline, Ohio Nonprofit Resources, Nonprofit Good Practice Guide, Nonprofit Startup Guide, Nonprofit Blog, National Coalition of Homeless Newsletter, Finance and Administration Roundtable Newsletter, MichiganNonprofit.com, CORP! Magazine, Crain’s Michigan Nonprofit, ncrp.org, PhilanTopic, Nashville Free Press, Nonprofit Law Blog, Seniors World Chronicle, Carnegie Reporter, Assoc. of Certified Fraud Examiners Examiner, msnbc.com, Worchester (MA) Telegram and Gazette, Carnegie Corporation of America, EO Tax Journal, Wikipedia: Non-profit Organizations; Parent: Wise Austin, Accountants News, Veterans Today, Answers.com, Far-roundtable, #Nonprofit Report, nonprofithelpnews, nonprofit news; National Enquirer, Northwest Herald, The HelpWise Daily, The #Nonprofit Report, Wikipedia (Nonprofit Organization), Answers.com, Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)