Hawaii Attorney General Mark Bennett has joined the Federal Trade Commission and 60 attorneys general, secretaries of state and other law enforcement officials from 48 states and the District of Columbia in a crackdown on fraudulent charitable solicitors and charities claiming to help police, firefighters and veterans.

“Operation False Charity” has resulted in a settlement between at least 35 states and solicitor/telemarketer Community Support, Inc.
CSI, which is based in Milwaukee, Wis., solicits funds from consumers in Hawaii and almost every other state on behalf of more than 35 charitable clients. In general, CSI kept no less than 83 percent of all the money it collected on behalf of the charities. In many contracts, CSI kept 90 percent of the money.
Bennett’s office says CSI had a pattern of consistently violating Hawaii law. It alleged that CSI often misrepresented how much of the funds would actually go to the charity, misrepresented what would be spent in the local community, harrassed call recipients, allowed its callers to falsely claim to be law enforcement officers or veterans, and falsely claimed a person had made a pledge when that person had not done so.
In settling, CSI agreed to cease illegal and objectionable tactics and regularly report information to states. Violations of the agreement may result in penalties of $10,000 per violation. CSI also agreed to reimburse the states $200,000 for the cost of their investigation.