Two men have been accused of conning hundreds of elderly victims out of thousands of dollars in donations, which the victims were persuaded to make to non-existent charities.
The pair were identified as Danny Kleiman and David Werkmeister, who allegedly ran the scam between November 2005 and April 2007, according to an indictment by the state grand jury.
The indictment alleges that the men used more than 180 fake charity names when soliciting donations and that little or no money went to charitable causes.
Kleiman and Werkmeister fraudulently registered charity trade names and then systematically began a solicitation campaign during which 6,500 people from six metro-area counties were called by phone and asked to donate money, according to the grand jury.
More than 1,600 contributions exceeding more than $95,000, were made by 626 victims, with more than three-fourths of the money coming from elderly donors, according to the indictment.
The men are charged with racketeering, theft from at-risk adults, forgery, perjury and felony violations of the Colorado Charitable Solicitations Act.
The investigation leading to the indictments was conducted by the Broomfield Police Department, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
If convicted of all counts, the men face a possible sentence of 159 years in prison and $2 million in fines.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
