Raffle Director Ordered to Pay Restitution
Nearly one month after the charity’s founder shot himself to death after admitting to defrauding consumers in a Parkville charity raffle, the state concluded its case against Mary Bolling, ordering her to pay $5,000 in restitution.
Bolling, who served as the Kansas City director for St. Louis based Gateway to a Cure, is also permanently prohibited from fundraising, holding raffles or serving as director of a non-profit in the state under a consent judgment and permanent injunction obtained by Nixon and filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Nixon originally filed the lawsuit against Boling, fellow director Lou Sengheiser and the charity itself on 2006, winning a $2,080,075 default judgment against the spinal cord research charity on Jan. 29, 2007.
Also on Wednesday came an order of dismissal without prejudice against Sengheiser, who was found dead on the roof of his offices the morning of Nov. 8. The day previous, Sengheiser had testified in court where he admitted to using funds from charity raffles to pay personal debts, mortgage payments and credit card bills. Sengheiser also admitted that he had bought hundreds of tickets to his charity’s raffles under assumed names or in friends’ names to boost sales. Sengheiser confirmed that he had unintentionally won two raffles.
Along with the Parkville “Dream Home at the National” raffle, Gateway to a Cure solicited ticket sales in Missouri and other states in high-profile raffles for advertised prizes such as luxury items, automobiles, and college scholarships. The raffles included the Grand Giveaway-St. Louis and the Grand Giveaway-Kansas City, as well as the 7th Annual Great American Dream Home Giveaway, and Scholarship Raffle.
The charity deceived consumers into thinking the raffles meant sizeable donations to spinal cord research, misrepresented the ticket purchases as tax deductible, and misrepresented the prizes and when the raffles would be held, Nixon said.
The Parkville raffle house, built by Bolling Homes, narrowly escaped foreclosure after the scandal came to light and was purchased by a local family at fair market value. Bolling could not be reached for comment.
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office told the Luminary that the state would still work to collect from the $2 million judgement and that there could still be redress for consumers who purchased tickets. Inquiries from consumers should be directed to consumer@ago.mo.gov or 1-800-392-8222.