Cause Marketing

On Friday, a Federal judge in Minnesota sentenced Cameron Lewis, age 36, and his father Tyron Lewis, both of Monticello, Utah, to 17 and five years respectively for defrauding hundreds of school districts of nearly $40 million using a now-defunct charity called the National School Fitness Foundation (NSFF). The fraud amounted to money laundering; a Ponzi scheme. I know Cameron. Met him the first time over lunch at a Chinese restaurant along with several of his board members. I met with him subsequently several times. He has a certain charisma. I mention this because a charity I once worked for came within a hair’s breadth of partnering with the NSFF. That charity wasn’t defrauded by Lewis. But we did actually partner with Aaron Tonken, the Hollywood event planner and now convicted felon, who went to prison in 2003 for defrauding charities (as I recall) of $1.9 million. The charity I worked for lost $100,000 due to Tonken’s machinations, but later recovered the money in full. I also met...