This past June, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman went to court to shut down the “Coalition Against Breast Cancer,” which he characterized as a “sham charity that fraudulently raised millions of dollars under the guise of fighting breast cancer, only to funnel the money to organization insiders and fundraisers.”
The Attorney General contended that David and Mindy Winston, the husband and wife who operated the Coalition, had “deceive[d] donors” into believing that their donations would help eradicate breast cancer through research, mammogram screening, and other programs but that in reality the Coalition had “squandered and misused” virtually all of the $9.1 million it had raised in the name of breast cancer. Although the status of the guilty pleas entered by the defendants is in some doubt, the significance of the Attorney General’s action against the couple should be noted by all cause marketers.