Two Florida charities are banned from soliciting donations in Minnesota for not spending donations as they said they would: helping families of police officers killed in the line of duty.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the ban last week. It was the result of a settlement in Ramsey County District Court after his office sued the American Federation of Police and Concerned Citizens Inc. in 2018. His office said 83% of program spending backed fundraisers and for-profit agents, not families of police officers.
"These folks repeatedly lied to Minnesota donors that all they were doing was supporting the families of fallen officers, when they barely did that at all," he said in a statement.
The American Federation of Police and Concerned Citizens Inc. is required to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution, the amount Minnesotans donated to it over six years. The state also banned the National Association of Chiefs of Police Inc., which is also based in Florida and has a similar mission and is run by the same leaders, the Attorney General's Office said.
