Suspected fraudulent cancer charity drive attracts over 50,000 donors
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Police believe that more than 50,000 Finnish individuals, companies, and associations have donated money in good faith to a suspected fraudulent charity drive for cancer victims.
Most of the victims apparently bought wall calendars and bookmarks costing EUR 29-49.
"The goods were marketed with the claim that the revenue would go to help cancer patients", says police inspector Ismo Siltamäki.
Investigators say that only a small portion of the money collected for the two organisations, Syöpäsairaiden tuki ry and Solia Oy, ended up benefiting cancer patients.
The organisers of the drive have been questioned under suspicion of aggravated fraud and marketing law violations. The number of plaintiffs could prove to be the largest ever recorded in a Finnish charity fraud case.
Investigators say that the fund-raising activities took place over a period of more than two and a half years.
According to a current affairs programme aired in January on the commercial television network MTV3, just over one percent of the more than EUR one million collected in the campaign in 2003 went to the intended beneficiaries. Most of the money went to Solia Oy, which arranged a telemarketing drive for the same purpose. Solia is run by the same person who established the cancer charity Syöpäsairaiden tuki ry.
The preliminary police investigation was to have been completed sometime this spring, but the large number of potential plaintiffs has delayed the process. The exact number of donors is not yet known, but they are believed to exceed 50,000. Police expect to interview several hundred of them as plaintiffs, and hope to inform the rest of how they can submit possible demands for compensation.
The amount of money and the number of donors far outstrips those involved in a similar case, involving a fund-raising drive for veterans of the Winter War, which took place at the end of the 1990s.
More than 18,000 people gave money to that drive, bringing in almost two million euros, only a small fraction of which went to benefit the veterans themselves. The main organiser of the campaign was charged with aggravated fraud, but was acquitted on appeal.
Both cases involve a pattern teetering on the threshold of illegality, which has become quite common in recent years. Direct solicitation of donations requires a special permit. However, money can be collected by selling items such as toys, calendars, books, or magazines, with a huge profit margin. Ultimately only a very small percentage of the money collected goes to benefit the good cause in question.
Criminal charges have been filed in some cases, but there have been very few convictions.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 11.4.2005 - TODAY |
 Suspected fraudulent cancer charity drive attracts over 50,000 donors
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