Fundraising Scam Yields Charitable Monies

Attorney General Spitzer today announced that his office has secured and will be distributing funds inappropriately raised by a Texas-based fundraiser in the name of a Yates County charitable organization.

"Aggressive enforcement actions against fraudulent solicitations serve to uphold the integrity of charitable organizations and their commitment to beneficiaries and donors," Spitzer said. "My office is dedicated to ensuring that donations are remitted to the charitable organizations to which they were pledged.

Last July, Acting Justice W. Patrick Falvey of Yates County State Supreme Court permanently barred Douglas David Henschen, Jr., owner of Henschen Ministry Services, from soliciting charitable donations on behalf of Freedom Village USA, Inc. - a Yates County charity that runs a halfway house for wayward youth.

In December 2000, Spitzer's office obtained a temporary restraining order freezing several of Henschen's Texas-based bank accounts. Those accounts contained approximately $22,000 in donations pledged to Freedom Village. The court order also authorized Spitzer's office to seize more than $23,000 in donations that had been mailed to Henschen's private mail box in Elmira.

Spitzer's office also commenced a lawsuit alleging that Henschen had used Freedom Village's mailing list - provided to him when the two parties had a pending contract for fundraising services - to obtain monies from donors. The founder of Freedom Village discovered that Henschen had been soliciting charitable donations without its permission and collecting monies without forwarding the proceeds to his organization.

In issuing the consent order last July, Justice Falvey also barred Henschen from engaging in charitable solicitations unless he has a valid written contract and has obtained the beneficiary's written approval of the phone script and literature. In addition, Henschen is required to deposit all charitable donations in bank accounts under the exclusive control of the beneficiary or in a third-party escrow account.

The court order also authorized Spitzer's office to distribute the frozen funds to the rightful recipient, Freedom Village, or return the money to the donor, if he/she requests it. Spitzer's office will be mailing out more than $47,000 in donations to Freedom Village and $5,500 to donors who had requested refunds.

This case is being handled by Assistant Attorney General Carlos Rodriguez of the Rochester Regional Office.