FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
August 16, 2016
For More Information, contact:
Luther Strange
Mike Lewis (334) 353-2199
Alabama Attorney General
Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491
Page 1 of 1
AG STRANGE SEEKS POSSIBLE VICTIMS OF CHARITABLE FRAUD SCHEME
(MONTGOMERY) -Attorney General Luther Strange is seeking possible victims of a charity
scam that circulated throughout Alabama and several other states.
Gary R. Tomey, who ran Children and Family Services, which later changed its name to
Children’s Charitable Services and used a number of other names, was convicted in May in
Northern District, Pensacola Division of U.S. District Court in Florida for conspiracy to commit mail
and wire fraud and for mail fraud in connection with his telemarketing scheme. Attorney General
Strange’s Consumer Interests Division assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida with the
prosecution. Sentencing is set for September 26.
Between December 2008 and May 2012, Tomey operated a telemarketing scheme that
solicited charitable donations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio and
Tennessee. Tomey instructed his employees to fraudulently tell donors that the solicitors were
volunteers, that 100 percent of their donations went to the charity, and that all funds raised would
help children in the state where the donor lived. However, less than 10 percent of the more than $2
million received in charitable donations actually went to charitable causes; the rest went to pay
employee salaries, business expenses and for Tomey’s personal expenses.
“Mr. Tomey and his organization deliberately and maliciously defrauded consumers who
opened their hearts and their wallets to the plight of children who they believed would be helped,”
said Attorney General Strange. “I am pleased that he has been held to account and will be punished
for his crime. Now it is important that those who have been victimized come forward so that they
may receive whatever restitution may be possible.”
Attorney General Strange said the consumers may be victims of this crime if they donated to
Children and Family Services Inc., Children’s Charitable Services Inc., or any other entities which
Tomey used as a name for doing business, including Alabama Children Services or Alabama
Children and Family Services, Arkansas Children and Family Services, Florida Children and Family
Services, Indiana Children Services or Indiana Children and Family Services, Ohio Children
Services, Tennessee Children and Family Services or Youth Achievement League Inc.
Attorney General Strange said that those who believe they have been victimized should
contact Victim/Witness Specialist Gretchen Busbee at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida at (850)
444-4000 or Gretchen.Busbee@usdoj.gov.
501 Washington Avenue * Montgomery, AL 36104 * (334) 242-7300
www.ago.state.al.us
