August 8, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
Mitchell Gold, a California telemarketer, has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison after pleading guilty to mail-fraud and money-laundering charges involving $1.5-million he raised in the name of charities but kept for himself.
Mr. Gold also pleaded guilty to running a golf-club sales plan that was designed to defraud customers and credit-card companies.
In his sentencing ruling, Judge David O. Carter ordered Mr. Gold to pay $2-million in restitution to a credit-card company that handled the golf-club deal.
Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office had brought the criminal fraud charges against Mr. Gold, who pleaded guilty in March.
The Federal Trade Commission is also taking Mr. Gold to court.
The federal agency alleges that he kept $26-million of the $27-million he raised in the name of numerous charities over several years. Mr. Gold has fought the commission’s case, insisting he did nothing illegal and that his payments to the charities lived up to the contracts he had with them.
Last year, a Chronicle study found that Mr. Gold’s companies ranked among the 10 professional solicitors that provided the smallest share of donations to charity, with just 11 percent of the money they collected going to the charities they represented (The Chronicle, April 5, 2001).
As part of his guilty plea, Mr. Gold admitted that he continued raising money in the name of six nonprofit groups even after his contracts with those organizations had expired, keeping all $1.5-million he raised for himself.
The organizations involved helped firefighters, disabled police officers, handicapped children, veterans, and children with AIDS.
