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VietnameseGriffin: ‘Misrepresenting to charitable donors how their contributions will be spent is unconscionable’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it filed a lawsuit and settlement with Kars-R-Us.com, Inc. (Kars) over a deceptive fundraising scheme that the charity had engaged in:
“I joined the FTC, 17 other attorneys general, and four other state offices in suing Kars and its operators, Michael Irwin and Lisa Frank, for soliciting charitable donations of vehicles nationwide—including 318 vehicles valued at a total of $115,332 from here in Arkansas—that were supposed to assist patients battling breast cancer. The donations collected totaled more than $45 million nationwide, but it was determined that only $126,815 of that went to support breast-cancer patients.
“Under the proposed settlement order our coalition reached with Kars, the organization and its operators face restrictions on future fundraising activities, and Irwin will be permanently banned from fundraising.
“Misrepresenting to charitable donors how their contributions will be spent is unconscionable, and I am pleased to have reached a resolution in this case.”
Joining Griffin on the FTC’s complaint and settlement were the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin; the secretaries of state of Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina; and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection.
To read the complaint and settlement that was filed, click here.
To download a PDF of this release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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