July 22, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
A New York man has pleaded guilty to criminal charges of acting as a professional fund raiser without registering with state authorities as required by New York law.
Dominic J. D’Alfonso, of North Syracuse, acknowledged that his company, Upstate Telemarketing, had solicited donations for at least four charities after the company’s registration as a professional fund raiser had expired.
As part of a plea agreement reached with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Mr. D’Alfonso and his company agreed never again to solicit charitable donations from New York residents. A judge fined Mr. D’Alfonso $100 in the misdemeanor case.
Officials in Mr. Spitzer’s office said they believed the lawsuit was the first case in New York in which a fund raiser was criminally charged for failure to register with the state (The Chronicle, October 16, 2003).
The attorney general said that Mr. D’Alfonso had continued raising money for charity despite repeated notices from state authorities that he needed to register.
Mr. D’Alfonso was also aware of the registration requirement, the attorney general said, because of a civil lawsuit filed by the state in 1997 against one of the fund-raising companies of which Mr. D’Alfonso served as president.
The 1997 lawsuit was settled when Mr. D’Alfonso agreed to a court order that prohibited any corporation that he would ever own or operate from soliciting funds without being registered as a professional fund raiser.
“Flagrant disregard of our registration requirements will not be tolerated, particularly by repeat offenders,” Mr. Spitzer said in a statement.
