Las Vegas man pleads guilty to lucrative telemarketing scam

NEW YORK (AP) — A Las Vegas man pleaded guilty Tuesday to an indictment in federal court accusing him of tricking people into donating tens of millions of dollars to supposed charities but actually masquerading as political action committees or his own businesses.

Richard Zeitlin, 54, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in Manhattan federal court, where sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 10. In a plea agreement signed with the prosecution, he recommended a prison sentence of 10 to 13 years.

He also agreed to pay $8.9 million in restitution from the crime, plus any fines, damages or other penalties the judge may impose at sentencing. His lawyer declined to comment.

According to an indictment, Zeitlin committed the fraud from 2017 to 2020, using “call centers” he operated since at least 1994 to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charities and political action committees.

Since 2017, he has used the call centers to defraud numerous donors by providing them with false and misleading information about what their money would be spent on and which organizations it would go to, the indictment says.

Although donors were told they would help veterans, police officers and breast cancer patients, up to 90 percent of the money raised went to Zeitlin’s company, according to court documents.

It is said that starting in 2017, Zeitlin encouraged some prospective clients to run political action committees rather than charities because this would allow them to avoid the specific regulations and requirements for charities.

Zeitlin instructed his employees to change the scripts of their phone solicitations to convince people that they were donating to charity rather than a political cause because doing so would raise more money, the indictment says.

For example, a call center employee might tell someone that a donation would help “disabled and injured veterans by providing them with medical care they cannot get from the Veterans Administration.”

Sometimes, the indictment says, Zeitlin also defrauded political action committees of money by diverting the money to his companies instead of using it for the purposes specified by the call center employees.

“Zeitlin’s fraudulent actions not only undermined the trust of donors but also exploited their goodwill for his personal gain,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release.