DENVER—A state grand jury has indicted two men on multiple felony charges in a fake charity scheme that cost 626 victims a total of more than $95,000, the Colorado attorney general’s office said Thursday.
The indictment alleges that Danny Kleiman and David Werkmeister used the names of more than 180 nonexistent charities and contacted up to 6,500 residents by phone between 2005 and 2007 to solicit money for the charities.
Two of the charity names were fraudulently registered with the Colorado Department of State and the Colorado Department of Revenue, said Geoff Blue, deputy attorney general for legal policy.
“The idea behind that is they can take the paperwork for that and go open bank accounts,” Blue said.
The other charities were not registered with any government agency, he said.
Blue said at least some of the victims were from Colorado, “but it’s possible that not all of them were.” More than three-fourths of the victims were elderly, and little or no money was put to charitable use, the indictment said.
“This office takes charitable fraud very seriously,” Blue said. “This case shows how seriously we take it.”
Charges include violations of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, theft from at-risk adults, forgery, perjury and felony violations of the Colorado Charitable Solicitations Act.
Broomfield police arrested Werkmeister on Tuesday. He was being held at the Denver City Jail on $100,000 bond, according to the Denver County Sheriff’s Office.
Kleiman was arrested Wednesday and was in the Larimer County Jail on $150,000 bond, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said.
Kleiman and Werkmeister each face up to 159 years in prison and up to $2 million in fines if convicted on all counts.
Phone numbers for the two could not be found, and Blue didn’t know if either man had an attorney.
He also didn’t know the men’s hometowns but said they were living in Colorado when the alleged crimes were committed.
Blue said the case is an important lesson for the public. Donors need to check with government agencies to verify if charities are registered. If they’re not, that should raise a red flag, he said.
