Source: kali9 / Getty
CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) –
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is suing the Cops for Kids charity and their telemarketer Telcom Enterprises.
According to the lawsuit, Cops for Kids collected more than $4.2 million from Ohio donors while it was operating from 2005-2015, but less than 2 percent of that money was actually given to any charity.
DeWine says over $3.34 million was given to Telcom Enterprises and $802,662 was spent on salaries and overhead. Only $73, 840 actually went toward charity — that’s only about 80 cents per $100.
“We believe Cops for Kids is a sham operation that has defrauded Ohioans out of millions of dollars while performing almost no legitimate charitable work,” adds DeWine.
Investigators say Cops for Kids only sent a few boxes of teddy bears to police departments, wrote checks to other agencies and funded some $500 college scholarships issued by other organizations.
The organizers of Cops for Kids are identified by DeWine as Thomas Duffy and Charles Hitzel, both of Ashtabula.
READ MORE: Cleveland19.com
Article Courtesy of WOIO Cleveland 19 News
Picture Courtesy of kali9 and Getty Images
