Читать книгу The Law of Fundraising - Bruce R. Hopkins - Страница 88

Frequently, a state charitable solicitation statute invests the state's attorney general (or, occasionally, some other official) with specific powers in connection with administration and enforcement of the statute.⁷⁴ Usually, the attorney general is authorized to investigate the operations or conduct of charitable organizations, professional fundraisers, and professional solicitors who are subject to the statute, and to issue orders having the same force and effect as a subpoena. The attorney general is often expressly empowered to initiate an action in court to enjoin, preliminarily or permanently, a charitable organization, professional fundraiser, professional solicitor, or other person who engages in a method, act, or practice in violation of the statute or a rule or regulation promulgated in connection with the statute; or employs or uses in a solicitation of charitable contributions a device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, or to obtain money or property by means of any false pretense, deception, representation, or promise.

Occasionally, the attorney general is collaterally granted some or all of this authority with respect to individuals or organizations masquerading as charitable organizations or as charitable organizations entitled to an exemption from the statutory requirements. Thus, the statute may empower the state's attorney general to institute legal action against a charitable organization or person which or who operates under the guise or pretense of being an organization or person exempted by the act and is not in fact an organization or person entitled to such an exemption.

These state statutes usually include the obligatory provision that they may not be construed to limit or restrict the exercise of powers or performance of duties of the attorney general that he or she otherwise is authorized to exercise or perform under any other provision of law. The charitable solicitation act is likely to explicate this principle, by providing that the attorney general must enforce the due application of funds given or appropriated to public charities within the state and prevent breaches of trust in the administration thereof.