Archived Investigations

PGC Investigation 13-001

Because of significant Member complaints, the Disciplinary Committee of Profitable Giving Canada is presently investigating the activities of the following organizations and their related individuals.  

 
 
A Third Interim Report has been completed and issued to Members.  It is summarized as follows:
 
  • The Group has legitimized its debt collection activities by the establishment of a lawfully registered collection agency,   Integrated RM Inc (IRM).    Blair Wright, from IRM, is calling and sending out collection emails on behalf of the Group.  
  •  Blair Wright, and other collections staff from the Group,   make fraudulent claims that IRM can settle donor's debts in compliance with the Income Tax Act.   This is not true unless the debt is settled at full face value.  Donors will certainly be faced wtih repaying their tax credits to CRA.
  • The Group,  specifically through the MLF website,  claims that PGC is making false statements about them, however, they have not contacted us with a retraction request or provided any specific proof to support their claim.
  •  The Group appears to finally be accepting settlement pharmaceuticals from the Justice Pharma program, and specifically stated they were for the purposes of settling donor debts.   This is a very positive step, however, they have yet to issue any specific individual statements to the settled donors.

You can view the complete Third Interim Report HERE.

 

A Second Interim Report has been completed and issued to Members.   The second report deals with additional complaints received since the first report was issued in July 2013.   It is now more apparent than ever that the above companies are all controlled by a small  group of individuals which we continue to refer to as The Group.  Below is a summary of the latest Interim Report.

  • The Group has ramped up its debt collection activities through it collection agent,  Integrated Receivables Management Inc (IRMI).    IRMI is acting unlawfully as a third party collection agent and is not licensed or authorized to contact you in this regard.   You have the right to complain about their telephone calls and communications to the provincial Consumer Protection Agencies, several of whom are currently investigating IRMI.  
  • The Group continues to fraudulently claim they are properly settling donors debts, when in fact they are fully aware that their process is not compliant under current tax law.   Donors will be faced with reassessments from the CRA and will almost certainly have to repay the majority of the tax credits received. 
  • The Group claims that no settlement pharmaceuticals have come from donors using the Justice Pharma program when in fact they have been notified and are well aware of the very large quantity of medicines ready to be delivered.   The Group has systematically refused to settle donors debts using the Justice Pharma program.   The Justice legal counsel has been working diligently for over 6 months to get the Group to accept the pharmaceuticals.  
  • The Group claims (as in the recent email from RLG)   that they are willing to accept settlement pharmaceuticals from any vendor, however, they have placed impossible conditions on the process.  The conditions are new and different than in the original contracts signed by donors and are therefore not legitimate.  Details are contained in the full report.
  • The Group has used for their own purposes, all of the prepaid interest trust funds that were to be refunded to donors when the debt was settled early.   This appears to be the major reason for the multitude of tactics used by the Group to avoid settling the debt by any process other than their own.   Your money is gone.

You may view the complete Interim Report Here

As a result of the Investigation so far, PGC is recommending to all its Members and Subscribers to avoid any payment to any of the Group's entities, telemarketers, or collection salespeople. Sending payments of any kind to the Group after knowing the present situation is unwise.

 
July 2013:  A first Interim Report has been completed and provided to the subjects of the investigation as well as made public here.  Part of the investigation was to ask the subjects of the investigation to answer certain questions.   The letter of questions is available below, along with the response from Phil Trudelle, of RLG and MLF.  Unfortunately, they decided to not answer any of the questions, but took the opportunity to attack the PGC organization and its directors and members.   A final report will be issued after the outstanding issues listed in the Interim Report have been decided.   
 
First Interim Report  July 2013 -  Executive Summary 
  • It is apparent the Group has betrayed the trust of donors for its use of donor prepaid interest.  Trust funds were not kept on account, rather used for the benefit of the Group and were therefore not available to refund to donors as anticipated.   This has resulted in the Group resisting all attempts to allow donors to settle their debts in the anticipated contractual manner.
  • It is apparent the Group has betrayed the trust of donors by using the funds in the donor’s legal defense fund for the defense of the Group from CRA audit and questioning.  Little if any funds remain available for the original purpose of defending a donor test case in tax court against the CRA.
  • It is apparent the Group has deceived donors by perpetrating collection activities with the intent to settle donor’s debts using the Group’s own companies and organization.   The Group advises donors that the purpose of the collection efforts are to show the CRA the program is valid.  They knowingly understand that their non-arm’s length process is not valid under current tax law, and the donor is likely to lose his tax credit.   This constitutes the deception. 
  • The Group appears to have inappropriately withheld cash donations from one of their charity partners as ransom for payment of excessive fundraising fees.   The Group also withheld donation information from the charity,  thus not allowing the charity to issue donation tax receipts in a timely fashion.

To view the entire report, click on the file below:

Documents: