Taxes Financial Warfare Club Under Legal Cloud
Maryland attorney general issues cease and desist order against company aimed at African-American Christians
Chuck Fager | posted 5/21/2001 12:00AM
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The FWC Web site features a statement by Ramona Edelin, executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington, D.C., endorsing another Dukes venture, International Business Group (IBG). "I wholeheartedly support the vision, mission, and aspirations of IBG," Edelin says, "as it pursues the uncharted territory of integrating an entire community in the wealth creation channels of the American economic infrastructure."
Cooperating with Regulators
Edelin was out of the country at press time. The foundation's administrator, Ethel Mitchell, told CT that neither Edelin nor the foundation would have endorsed anything fraudulent.
Dukes and Hodge had until the end of March to respond to the cease and desist order. But in mid-April, the attorney general's office told CT that it had granted an extension to Financial Warfare.
Meanwhile, Financial Warfare has added a pop-up disclaimer to its Web site, saying it is "for information purposes only" and is "not a solicitation to buy or sell any security." The note adds that the organization sells only memberships, not stocks. Several links to sales documents on the site have also been broken, although the documents remain on the site.
Financial Warfare is "cooperating with state regulators to resolve the matter," said Kwame Anthony, FWC's attorney, in a faxed statement. The statement added that "while Financial Warfare Club "does not admit to any wrongdoing," it would offer to return money to any Maryland resident who had previously purchased memberships.
Neither FWC nor Maryland officials would say how much money or how many people are involved in the membership program.
Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere
Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.'s press release, "Curran moves to shut down church-based investment program," is available at his office's Web site.
Maryland's business and legal news daily newspaper, The Daily Record, also has a news story: "Attorney general issues cease-and-desist order in alleged 'affinity scam'"
FinancialWarfare.comhas now posted a disclaimer on its Internet site, saying, "Please note that our Website has changed significantly. We are offering eduactional [sic] membership only." A new policy statement is available in Adobe Acrobat format.
See Chuck Fager's other articlesfor Christianity Today on similar cases of financial irregularities.
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