CHICAGO -- Illinois Attorney General Neil Hartigan has sued a former Ku Klux Klansman and others on charges they collected money for AIDS victims and kept most of it for themselves.
The suit filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court named directors of the National AIDS Prevention Institute of Virginia, Apple Marketing of Houston and three Cook County businessmen.
'These people preyed on the sympathy of the public for the plight of children with AIDS,' Hartigan said. 'What they failed to tell contributors was that only nine cents a day would go to the charity.'
He said Sidney Chambless, Phil Gracz and Robert Nardini each bought 200 'Wishing Well' canisters for $6,000 from the National AIDS Prevention Institute in September 1989 and placed them near cash registers at local businesses. The containers were identified as collection boxes for the Children With AIDS Foundation, operated by NAPI in Culpeper, Va., the lawsuit said.
Under contract with NAPI, the three Cook County men were required to return only $2.50 of each month's proceeds to the institute and could keep the rest for themselves, Hartigan said.
Apple Marketing distributed the canisters for NAPI by mail and claimed in letters to buyers that net profits could be as high as $67,000 in the first year.
Richard Shoff, Kannapolis, N.C., vice chairman of NAPI and a former executive of the Indiana KKK, was named in the suit along with NAPI President Harley E. Rowe, Culpeper, Va. and chairman D. James Kennedy, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Court records said David Harris and William Sterling, owners of Apple Marketing, were also named as defendants.
The suit does not specify how much money was collected but seeks $50,000 in penalties against each of 10 directors and board members of NAPI and Apple Marketing, as well as the three businessmen.
The suit also seeks a court-appointed receiver to collect all revenues to date from canisters in Illinois and an injunction blocking the revenues from being used in any manner.
The defendants are charged with violating the state's Solicitation for Charitable Purposes Act and the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act by making false claims to contributors about the destination of their donations.
