Feds, States Shut Down Charity Telefunding Fraud
March 9, 2021
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with 46 agencies from 38 states and the District of Columbia D.C., stopped a massive telefunding operation that hit 67 million consumers with 1.3 billion allegedly deceptive charitable fundraising calls. Most of the calls were illegal robocalls.
The defendants collected more than $110 million using their deceptive solicitations.
Associated Community Services (ACS) and related defendants have agreed to settle charges by the FTC and state agencies that they duped donors into giving to charities that failed to provide the services they promised. The complaint names ACS and its sister companies Central Processing Services and Community Services Appeal; their owners, Dick Cole, Bill Burland, Barbara Cole, and Amy Burland; and ACS senior managers Nikole Gilstorf, Tony Lia, John Lucidi, and Scot Stepek. In addition, the complaint names two fundraising companies allegedly operated by Gilstorf and Lia as spin-offs of ACS, Directele, and The Dale Corporation.