By Dan Trudeau
A Long Island City man pleaded guilty Monday to defrauding dozens of individuals and businesses in a telemarketing scam that involved a non-profit organization that was supposed to have helped the families of police officers who had been killed in the line of duty, U.S. Attorney James Comey said.
Justin Patrick White, 58, was the founder and president of the Police Survivors Fund, a fraudulent non-profit organization in Long Island City that solicited more than $450,000 between October 1999 and January 2002, but actually paid out only $24,500 to families of slain policemen, Comey said. He is the U.S. attorney for the Southern District in Manhattan.
White has entered guilty pleas to three counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, with each count carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison, Comey said. U.S. District Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy ordered White to be jailed immediately and will impose White's sentence on Sept. 18.
According to the indictment, White ordered telemarketers employed by PSF to use a variety of deceptive and coercive methods to solicit donations all over the New York area.
White and PSF benefited from the World Trade Center attacks by soliciting in the name of officers killed in the rescue effort, raising about $180,000 between Sept. 11, 2001 and January 2002, according to the charges.
PSF telemarketers were given scripts that read: “A lot of people who feel very strongly about what happened at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 are donating $911 to commemorate the day of terrorism. … Could you be a staunch donor/supporter and do $911?”
Those who could not afford the more expensive donations were directed to “save face in the community with $50,” the indictment alleged.
Prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, donors who were reluctant to give the suggested donations of $1,000 or $395 were asked for a minimum gift of $99, while telemarketers said, “Surely you can do that for the widows and children,” according to the complaint.
White told the court he had instructed telemarketers to directly lie about the nature of the organization as he entered his guilty plea. White admitted that he ordered PSF employees to not answer questions about the percentage of funds donated and that at all times the organization kept at least 95 percent of donations.
PSF employees were also instructed to tell donors that the organization met the state's financial reporting requirements and that PSF had applied for tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, neither of which was true.
Of the $24,500 actually donated by the PSF, $20,000 was given after White felt pressure when one of his employees was arrested for impersonating a police officer during a solicitation, according to the criminal complaint.
During 2000 and 2001, White wrote $270,000 in checks made out to cash from a Fleet bank account designated for PSF, the complaint said. White subsequently cashed the checks.
The FBI and New York Police Department Impersonation Squad took part in the operation.
Reach Reporter Dan Trudeau by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.
