The voice on the line is warm and reassuring. He knows your name and gives his name, too. After establishing a rapport, perhaps with a joke, he tugs at your heartstrings — and purse strings — for causes like veterans funds, help for families of slain police officers, and first-responder support associations. Can you donate?
Matthew Perri, a thirty-one-year-old server from South Elgin, Illinois, gave roughly $500 to Honoring American Law Enforcement after receiving such a call in May. But instead of going to police, most of his money likely ended up in the swelling coffers of a notorious Las Vegas telemarketing king behind bars for fraud.
“I had no idea about that, and I’m very upset,” Perri said, only realizing the group was questionable after the Lever contacted him about his donations. “Oh my gosh, I’ve been scammed.”
As crime and violence have become major election-year issues — Perri, a registered Republican, called the news of Donald Trump’s attempted assassination “very concerning” — the Lever has found that a shadowy network of potentially counterfeit political action committees with names like Honoring American Law Enforcement, Law Enforcement for a Safer America, and Police Coalition of America has raised more than $14 million from pro-police calls and funneled roughly half of that to vendors connected to Richard Zeitlin, a telemarketer arrested last year on federal charges for wire fraud and obstruction of justice.
And while Zeitlin has been behind bars awaiting trial on these charges for nearly a year, those companies and…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Jean Yi
