July 2009 - Attorney General's Office issues advisory to the City of Shaker Heights Safety Officials:

Friends,

The Attorney General's Office regulates non-profit organizations throughout the state and focuses on preventing and halting charitable fraud. Each year, scam artists try to take advantage of our generosity by asking for donations that do not actually fund charitable enterprises.

Some of these scam artists fraudulently raise funds by telling people that their gifts will support activities aiding law enforcement officers, firefighters, or veterans. They say that the money donated will go toward buying new bullet-proof vests for police officers, a ladder truck for firefighters, or other types of aid for local veterans groups.

Then the scammers turn around and pocket the donations. We see it time and again.

In many cases, local officials are the first to receive citizen inquiries when solicitation calls are being made in a community. You are well placed to warn citizens about bogus charities and to let others know about them when they surface. We are eager to work with you and your local charitable organizations to ensure that proper fraud prevention and governance policies are in place to protect charitable assets and consumers.

Please call our Charitable Law Section when you become aware of local scams so that we can work together with you to put an end to them quickly. Also, there are civil and criminal penalties for fraudulent solicitations, and we want to see scammers punished for their activities.

Pete Thomas is our Charitable Law Section Chief. He can be reached at (614) 466-3181 or by e-mail at Peter.Thomas@OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov. We would also appreciate hearing from you when you learn of embezzlements or other financial irregularities affecting local non-profit organizations, which occurs more commonly than any of us would like to believe.

Thank you for all of the important work you do in your community.

Sincerely,

Richard Cordray
Ohio Attorney General

Further, the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters and the International Association of Firefighters notified the City that neither organization conducts fund drives.