BALTIMORE — Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, along with Secretary of State Susan C. Lee, announced Thursday that a Baltimore-based charity has been ordered to cease fundraising.
DMV Futures, Inc., along with its president, Marcus Smith, received a cease and desist order following allegations of unsupervised solicitation involving children.
According to officials, the youth charity is accused of driving groups of children into neighborhoods to engage in door-to-door solicitation to try and garner charitable contributions and sell candy.
An investigation revealed that the organization claimed to offer comprehensive work-educational youth programs and services, including part-time jobs, scholarships and other financial benefits to children.
Officials discovered that not only did the organization not have youth programs or services, none of the charitable contributions went towards benefiting the children.
The organizers allegedly pocketed the donations into their own personal accounts with no accounting control or board oversight.
Additionally, the annual reports and fees that were required to be submitted to the Office of the Secretary of State were never turned in, which caused the organization's registration status to be non-compliant.
“DMV Futures, Inc. misrepresented its charitable impact so its officers could make money off generous Marylanders who just wanted to help young people get a job or pay for school,” said Attorney General Brown. “We are proud to work with the Office of the Secretary of State to stop these dubious charities and ensure that Marylanders’ generosity benefits legitimate organizations, not those who abuse the public’s trust.”
“Charitable organizations and nonprofits assist Marylanders every day, and we will always zealously enforce the law in order to protect the public and the good work of legitimate nonprofits and charitable organizations,” said Secretary of State Lee.
Officials say the solicitation occurred across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
