UPDATED: Mark L. Schifter, PLEADS GUILTY to suspicion of charity fraud

[GirgleMirt]

Audioholics Story/Coverage: http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/av123-mark-schifter-indicted-grand-jury

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http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php?p=691737&postcount=2449

MLS indicted in Colorado on charity fraud!

Publish Date: 2/26/2010

Longmont man indicted on suspicion of charity fraud

© 2010 Longmont Times-Call

LONGMONT - A statewide grand jury on Friday indicted a Longmont man on suspicion of running illegal charity raffles, according to the Colorado Attorney General's Office.

Mark L. Schifter, 54, president of www.AV123.com and Perpetual Technologies, was accused in a five-count indictment of making to the tune of $180,000 by defrauding 707 people in 27 illegal raffles heled from 2004 through 2009. According to the attorney general's office, only $29,500 was distributed to charities. Some charities reported receiving nothing.

http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=20988


You can read the 5 count indictment here...

http://www.timescall.com/assets/pdf/022610Schifter_indictment.pdf

(From the Do not buy anything from av123.com thread)


Just thought a little heads up would be worth it for those who haven't followed this saga... Again, congrats to all of those involved in bringing this to justice! And thanks to AH for not having censored the issue like many other forums have chosen to! I think this will be a celebration day for many!

(Thought this deserves it's own heads up thread! If not, my apologies, please feel free to lock/delete!)

 

[6L6X4]

Wow... If convicted, what an ignominious end. Sad...

 

[jamie2112]

Sounds like he is FINALLY getting his.........

 

[MapleSyrup]

I never suspected a thing on AV123. In fact, I was moved when I saw Schifter use his website to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina victims. This is very sad. Schifter is a highly successful, and energetic, business man and set forth a very successful business model to provide audio gear to customers. I wish Schifter and his family well.

 

[MapleSyrup]

GirgleMirt

From your "Don't buy anything from AV123" link:

That sale can be viewed here:

http://av123forum.com/showthread.php...ghlight=friend

(As an aside from anyone from AV123 who might remove this thread I already have a screen shot of it so please do not waste your time)

LOL, that part of the forum apparently WAS taken down.

Dude, I tell ya', I was totally oblivious to the dark side of Schifter. Although I've never bought from them, I did recommend that site to a few family members (none of them bought anything from it either - phew).

I admire "Grantc79 for taking this issue public. That showed integrity snce it was he who recommended AV123 to a friend who got stiffed by Schifter.

And, WOW, 2653 posts?

 

[lsiberian]

This is sad that it had to come to this. I hope he comes to his senses and comes clean. Everyone messes up in life, but the longer we let it continue the worse of it gets. I pray this gets through to him.

 

[ratso]

sad? it's a great happy day. burn in hell. ripping off charities???? burn in hell.

 

[Bluesmoke]

Defrauding hundreds of people and capitalizing on their generosities. How an individual can use the name of a cancer or children's hospital and defraud them is beyond me. It's not as if he's made a mistake. This has been ongoing for 6 years now.

I hope the bastard gets what's coming to him!!! Stuff like this really me distrust humanity.

 

[Chu Gai]

Not one penny went to Katrina.

 

[Soundman]

Sad but true. Not sure what that means for the future of AV123

 

[fredk]

I never suspected a thing on AV123. In fact, I was moved when I saw Schifter use his website to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina victims. This is very sad. Schifter is a highly successful, and energetic, business man and set forth a very successful business model to provide audio gear to customers. I wish Schifter and his family well.

Depends what you call sucessfull I guess. A lot of people are out product or money because of him. As the article mentioned "tip of the iceberg".

 

[AccessGuy]

Charities and Retail Sales

First, I believe there is NO place for combining charity-giving with retail sales operations. Sell your products based on value and service - period. Even legitimate charities mostly have horrible expense ratios. Here is a link to many top-rated charities in terms of how efficiently they actually move money to their intended beneficiaries:

http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html

Here are their standards:

Of more than 500 charities currently rated by AIP, only a select number qualify for its listing of Top-Rated charities for “spending 75 percent or more of their budgets on programs, for spending $25 or less to raise $100 in public support, for not holding excessive assets in reserve, and for disclosure of basic financial information and documents to AIP.”

 

[Chu Gai]

This is sad that it had to come to this. I hope he comes to his senses and comes clean. Everyone messes up in life, but the longer we let it continue the worse of it gets. I pray this gets through to him.

Not a chance in hell. The raffle thefts started in 2004 and even when the forum came back up, he was talking about raffles for the LS-4's. He has been screwing suppliers from day 1 for hundreds of thousands of dollars up to a million. He's gotten people to invest heavily (5 to 6 figures) and not paid them.

I never suspected a thing on AV123. In fact, I was moved when I saw Schifter use his website to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina victims. This is very sad. Schifter is a highly successful, and energetic, business man and set forth a very successful business model to provide audio gear to customers. I wish Schifter and his family well.

He is successful in the same way Bernie Madoff was successful. I wish Schifter and his family justice and if justice means they're out on the streets, then that's fine. They'll get a chance to meet the other folks who've had their brush with enormous financial hardship.

 

[Chu Gai]

First, I believe there is NO place for combining charity-giving with retail sales operations. Sell your products based on value and service - period. Even legitimate charities mostly have horrible expense ratios. Here is a link to many top-rated charities in terms of how efficiently they actually move money to their intended beneficiaries:

http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html

Here are their standards:

Of more than 500 charities currently rated by AIP, only a select number qualify for its listing of Top-Rated charities for “spending 75 percent or more of their budgets on programs, for spending $25 or less to raise $100 in public support, for not holding excessive assets in reserve, and for disclosure of basic financial information and documents to AIP.”

First of all, in all states with I think the exception of Utah & Hawaii, a for profit business cannot legally run a raffle. They can't apply for a license. It's verbotten.

 

[majorloser]

Not one penny went to Katrina.

Well, there was that one stripper named Katrina. But that was just a few singles stuffed in the garter.

 

[chris357]

so what happens to the people who paid for products they never got?

 

[Chu Gai]

so what happens to the people who paid for products they never got?

They won't get them. At least not under present management and even then I'm not sure a new owner would take on the debt that Mark has. People should've sued. They should've contacted Colorado agencies, the BB for assistance. They should not have hoped. A few got lucky. Most didn't.

 

[Fancypants]

From your "Don't buy anything from AV123" link:



LOL, that part of the forum apparently WAS taken down.

I am not taking up for the man and what he may or may not have done. But, I am/was a happy customer until all of this came to light.

Nevertheless, that part of the site wasn't "taken down" they changed the domain name a while back, so it is just a dead link.

www.av123forum.com doesn't exist anymore, it is now http://forums.av123.com/

 

[KEW]

Too bad our justice system is so easy on white collar crime.

I doubt Mark's penalty will come close to what a guy would get for (non-violent) robbing a quick store.

Certainly I don't have sympathy for any thief, but the morality of robbing a store strikes me as far higher than that of a man who is willing to take money from people in desperate need in order to feed his own greed. In essence, Mark was willing to take money from people who were starving and in life-or-death need of money to satisfy his own greed.

I had come close to buying from AV123 and want to thank those (esp. Chu Gai) who went to the trouble to raise concerns about their operations.
The uncertainty of Mark's ethics was the factor which caused me to back away.

Interestingly, AV123 is still taking orders! I wonder if/when the retail operation will get shut down.

 

[Chu Gai]

Too bad our justice system is so easy on white collar crime.

I doubt Mark's penalty will come close to what a guy would get for (non-violent) robbing a quick store.

Certainly I don't have sympathy for any thief, but the morality of robbing a store strikes me as far higher than that of a man who is willing to take money from people in desperate need in order to feed his own greed. In essence, Mark was willing to take money from people who were starving and in life-or-death need of money to satisfy his own greed.

I had come close to buying from AV123 and want to thank those (esp. Chu Gai) who went to the trouble to raise concerns about their operations.
The uncertainty of Mark's ethics was the factor which caused me to back away.

Interestingly, AV123 is still taking orders! I wonder if/when the retail operation will get shut down.

They're clearing stuff out of deep storage and I doubt you'll see any subs or anything coming from Colombia. They're going to sell off what they can and when there's nothing more or the sales aren't coming, it's sorry charlie time.