New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit to shut down a charity that raised millions of dollars under the guise of fighting breast cancer, only to funnel the money to organization insiders and fundraisers.
The Long Island-based Coalition Against Breast Cancer solicited $9.1 million from the public over the past five years, but spent virtually no money on the breast cancer programs it said it supported.
Instead, the money was used to pay fundraiser fees, salaries and benefits packages, and for other personal goods, including cell phones, home phones, TV and internet services.
The lawsuit charges both CABC and its for-profit fundraiser, Campaign Center, with violations of New York State not-for-profit and charitable solicitations laws.
The organization advertised a bogus relationship with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center when no such affiliation existed.
According to the lawsuit, CABC spent less than one-half of 1 percent of donations raised for mammograms or any other purpose related to breast cancer prevention or detection.
In 2008, a year in which CABC raised more than $1.4 million from the public, it spent a mere $374 on mammograms.
In the last three years, despite receiving more than $4 million, CABC funded mammograms for only 11 women.
The lawsuit charges CABC, its directors Andrew Smith, Debra Koppelman and Patricia Scott, as well as Campaign Center and its owner, Garrett Morgan, with engaging in a scheme to defraud and violating New York State’s not-for-profit and charitable solicitation laws.
The Attorney General’s lawsuit seeks to shut down CABC and hold the defendants financially accountable.
The lawsuit was filed in New York Supreme Court in Suffolk County
