Fund Raiser Money Goes Missing

When this story first came to light Graciella Princess editor of the new magazine "Bridging the Gap" came to me and asked for help, I put her in contact with the ACS and RFL in SL and helped try to puzzle all the info out that she got. We have agreed to both break this story but I have not reprinted all the details those you can get by reading the magazine CLICK here to get your copy now:

"Show me the money!" We heard that phrase many times in the 1996 film "Jerry Maguire©." Rod Tidwell's (Cuba Gooding Jr) character required Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) to repeatedly yell this through a telephone, to test his resolve and his eagerness to get Tidwell the best deal possible with his football team.

Now, here in SL™, we have been hearing that phrase a lot from a small group of people. They all have been saying "Show us the money!"

From August 5th 2007 through August 11th 2007, Heartland sponsored a major cancer fund raising drive. What we do know is that over 1.5 million lindens were raised for this fund raiser. What we didn't know was where that money ended up.

The fund raiser itself was called United for a Cure and is reported to have involved more than 150 sims. Relay for Life® was contacted towards the end of July to participate in this event. However, it was communicated that some of the organizers of the event wanted to split the proceeds between Relay for Life, and a friend of theirs that had recently been diagnosed with cancer and required treatment. RFL® at that time declined to participate based on the fact that they do not split donations.

It is at this point that things begin to unravel. On the first day of the event, August 5th 2007, an RFL representative and two of her colleagues showed up at the event and noticed that the collection boxes that were being used appeared to be outdated ACS (American Cancer Society) kiosks, but were not. The RFL representatives first offered to replace the kiosks with real RFL kiosks, but this offer was refused. They then attempted to shut down the event, due to their suspicion of fraudulent activity and were subsequently banned from the location.

The creator of the kiosks, Razor Nordberg, said that they used the ACS initials and a ribbon, taken from a picture found on a ribbon website, on the kiosks. At the time, he didn't see anything wrong with doing this, as the money would in fact be donated to ACS.

The event goes on to reportedly raise over 1.5 million lindens in the name of cancer to be donated to the American Cancer Society, as promised in Raubin Sachertorte's posts to the SL forums. All of the donated funds were transferred to Sachertorte to convert to US dollars and donate to his local ACS office in KS. It was agreed that every shop owner, every sim, every DJ that participated in this event would receive a copy of the receipt from the donation, so that they could proudly display it in memory of their participation.

Seven months pass however, and still there is no receipt. Organizers are getting ready to put together another fund raiser, and questions begin to arise about the whereabouts of the previous donations. These organizers then start putting pressure on Raubin Sachertorte, owner of Heartland and sponsor of the event to show evidence of some sort, that the money ended up at it's intended destination.

At this time, Sachertorte produced a receipt placed upon a prim at his location in Heartland. Upon examination however, the receipt appeared to be false. The date, September 23, 2007 was a Sunday when ACS offices were not open for business. Immediately, organizers contacted the ACS office that this was to be donated to, and sent a copy of the receipt.

An ACS representative stated of the receipt:
This looks like an acknowledgment card that we may have used in the past for memorial donations and we no longer have them available to us. In fact, I cannot remember seeing one in the time I have been with the American Cancer Society. I was told by someone else about the card. Now, any donations that come in are entered into a database and a receipt is sent from there. If a cash donation is made, we must fill out a form for the donation to be credited and a receipt sent.
We don't give receipts from the office anymore. We can give a copy of an "Acceptance of Funds" form, but the actual receipt comes from our business center. 2. I can't tell for sure by looking at it, but it doesn't look like an NCR duplicate. 3. Also, I noticed that our logo is a little off - it looks square in shape, but it should not be. If the logo is 1-inch high, it should be more than 1.75-inches wide.
The number on the "receipt" does not match the formatting for an identification number for a donation. I checked the number in our ordering system to see if it might be an item number for a package of acknowledgment cards, but it didn't match our item numbers either. Also, we have never used "Greater Kansas City" in any of our names. I have been with this office of the American Cancer Society since 1999 and the name of our office has been: "Kansas City Metro Office, Heartland Division, Inc." and now "Kansas City Metro Office, High Plains Division, Inc."

So, what really happened? According to Mr. Sachertorte, on September 2, 2007, he was on his way home from having hernia surgery. On his way, Sachertorte stopped off at the Kansas City Cancer Center. At this time, there was a major Relay For Life event under way, and Sachertorte donated all $4553 to the RFL event. He was given a white gift bag and several candles. At each of their RFL events, this particular facility does give out luminaries to the donators in honor of all that have lost their battle with cancer.
Mr. Sachertorte and his RL wife went home, and placed three of the candles upon their mantle, and put the others away. They took a picture of the receipt, and uploaded it to his wife's computer. Then, they put the gift bag and the receipt away. The circumstances that followed, led to a wild and crazy search for the wayward donations.

According to Sachertorte, when organizers and contributors started asking about the money, he was unable to locate the paper copy of the receipt. To make matters worse, the hard drive the receipt was stored on had been fried in a lightening storm. On top of that, his real life son had taken the camera to school to take pictures and had deleted the copy that was stored there.

In addition to the already questionable situation, Sachertorte was unable to remember the date that he made the donation, nor could he recall the location. Suspicions arose on all fronts.

A friend of Sachertorte, who believed that he had made the donation, offered to help out. The unnamed party made an ACS receipt for him. Sachertorte figured that since he made the donation, it wouldn't hurt to use this receipt. The only problem with this plan, besides the obvious illegality, was that the forgery was poorly done, and he was caught almost immediately.

Of the receipt, Sachertorte said: "The person that made the receipt made it because they felt that I was being done wrong and they wanted to try to help me and the bad part about it was I didn't even think about it when they did it. I didn't think about it. I thought 'that's sweet. I can get this rectified.' They were so adamant to try to help me out. And they were like 'you know what, you've done so much for me I need to do something for you.' I won't divulge this person's name because I know they're dying. I've talked to the person on the phone. I know that they are dying and there is nothing they can do about it."

In a telephone conversation with Sachertorte on May 9th, 2008, he gave the location of where he believed he had made the donation. Calls to this location proved fruitless however, as the contact claimed they didn't accept donations of any kind and had not run any cancer related fund raisers during the time period in question

During a follow up conversation with Sachertorte on May 12th 2008, he again gave the same location. To clarify the facts, a conference call was made to the location with Sachertorte on the line. This time however, the answer was different.

Not only was there an RFL event during the time period that the donation was made, they also gave out candles which Sachertorte described. An email was sent out to the Kansas City Cancer Center (KCCC ) requesting a formal verification of the donation.
Unfortunately, in a follow up telephone conversation with a representative of the KCCC, it was revealed that the donation could not have been made there for several reasons.

As of this time, the money has not been accounted for. Although it is still unclear who has the money, we do know who does not have it. ACS/RFL does not have the money. Kansas City Cancer Center does not have the money. Cancer Action, a cancer awareness group in KS does not have the money. Susan G Komen Foundation does not have the money. The area hospitals do not have the money.

The last person that we do know for a fact had the money was Raubin Sachertorte, who acknowledged receipt of the money in both the May 9th conversations and the May 12th conversations. Further, on May 12th, Sachertorte stated that he split the proceeds between three avatars in order to be able to cash it out. The avatars were himself, his RL wife, and one of her alternate characters.

At this time, all known leads have been checked into. The money has unfortunately, been unable to be located.

The American Cancer Society had this statement:

"The American Cancer Society is conducting an internal investigation into allegations of fraud, relative to Relay For Life in Second Life. As fraud is a matter of great concern in both the virtual and real worlds, the Society takes very seriously any instance in which such an activity might have been externally initiated. If the investigation into this particular fundraising matter determines that fraud may have occurred, the Society will pursue the criminal(s) and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,as our donors would expect us to do as stewards of their resources."

- Jamie Kimbrough, Director, Media Relations Corporate Communications

American Cancer Society, National Home Office

Over 100 pages of text files, 5 hours of voice conversations and several pictures have been accumulated during the investigation for this article. All files have been made available to ACS as well as any law enforcement officials that may be investigating this issue.

By: Graciella Princess