Tom Miller
A joint effort by the Federal Trade Commission and the country’s 50 state attorneys general has shutdown a pair of sham cancer charities.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says the civil enforcement case targeted the Cancer Fund of American and Cancer Support Services, both run by James Reynolds, Senior of Tennessee. Miller says the bogus charities did very little to help cancer patients or fund cancer research.
“The misrepresentations were varied. They included such things as claiming the money would be used for various cancer treatment, claims that the money would be used for hospice for cancer patients, and claims that all of the money would be used for the charity,” Miller said. “Unfortunately, none of these representations were true.”
Instead, Miller says Reynolds and his family members pocketed much of the money donated to the cancer charities. “Nepotism was in place here in a very large degree,” Miller said. The settlement announced Wednesday dissolves the fake charities and bans Reynolds and others within his organization from fundraising, charity management, and oversight of charitable assets.
Investigators claimed Reynolds and his family members bilked more than $187 million from donors.