At the New To Las Vegas world headquarters recently, I was on the phone with “Vincent Wayne.” The object was to extract a contribution from me for American Police Officers Coalition PAC, which lists a Fairfax, Va., address. It was a standard pitch: thousands of injured cops nationally, the need to elect sympathetic politicians, etc., etc. etc. You can hear the general spiel by clicking on this link, which goes to a recording made by someone else and posted online.
OK, I said. I live in Nevada, where an unusual 2021 state law prohibits fundraising for law enforcement-themed causes without prior registration and the filing of financial statements. I explained this and asked, “Are you registered in Nevada?”
Click.
I think that is Latin for no.
“Wayne” wasn’t a real person (why I’m using quote marks), but rather a computer-generated voice monitored by a real person using what is known as soundboard technology. It’s all the rage among faux charities, political action committees, or PACs, that present as charities but essentially swindle clueless donors across the country by spending nothing on the stated cause. They get away with this mainly because state and federal regulators with only a few exceptions are asleep on the job.
After the abrupt termination of the call, I did a little research. Whadayaknow? Turns out the organization and its parent, the grammatically challenged American Coalition for Police and Sheriff’s PAC, aren’t registered in Nevada, aren’t very old, haven’t ever spent a dime raised on its professed mission to help law enforcement and also filled out a key federal filing incorrectly. Moreover, the paperwork lists as its sole responsible officer someone I’ve written about before in this space, and not very favorably.
Here we go again. Continue reading
