ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide. Founded in 1992, ANIMAL PEOPLE has no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.

 

This site built and maintained by: GREANVILLE ASSOCIATES and CRESCENT COMMUNICATIONS • Rev. 12.1.05 Copyright ANIMAL PEOPLE, INC. 1992--2005

 

 

 

 

 
   
 
powered by FreeFind

ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: SEPTEMBER 2006

New Jersey Consumer Affairs prosecutes another coin-can fundraiser

JACKSON, Michigan--Exiting New Jersey Office of Consumer Affairs director Kimberly Ricketts on August 2, 2006, her last day with the agency, appealed for public help to locate and impound an estimated 1,400 to 1,500 coin collection canisters believed to have been placed by an entity calling itself Lovers of Animals.

The Office of Consumer Affairs has filed suit, reported Newark Star-Ledger staff writer Brian T. Murray, alleging improper accounting for about $7,500 raised and spent in 2005.

The case followed the state shutdown of coin can fundraiser Patrick Jemas in June 2006. Jemas did business as the National Animal Welfare Foundation.

"Lovers of Animals was incorporated when Russell Frontera, 49, of Beachwood was furloughed from state prison in late 2004 after serving two years of a seven-year sentence for loan sharking," wrote Murray. "His name appears on charity documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service and the state that year, when he also opened a post office box for the charity.

"Frontera was banned from charity work for five years under a consent agreement with the state in 1993," Murray added. "The state had sued his AIDS Research Foundation in Toms River, accusing him and his wife of soliciting funds to help people with AIDS, but spending only a tiny fraction on supposed beneficiaries. A court found him in violation of the 1993 order a year later, when Frontera and his wife began operating a pet rescue operation involving 150 canisters placed in businesses around Toms River."

Frontera told Murray that his name was wrongly put on the Lovers of Animals paperwork by an accountant hired by his sister, Lovers of Animals president Josephine Thornton.