NAACP attacks AG over pyramid scam

Art Nadler

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The NAACP is claiming blacks were unfairly portrayed as the dominate racial group operating a pyramid scheme this summer.

The Rev. James Rogers Sr., president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, lambasted the attorney general's office for not investigating 21 Metro Police officers and their affiliates and 38 firefighters and their associates who are white.

"The only individuals publicly named as defendants by the attorney general's office were African-Americans," Rogers said Tuesday at a press conference. "This was done in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of participants in this money scheme were white.

"The fines, settlements, and agreements between the African-American participants are significantly different from the non-African-Americans. The AG's office appears to have levied heavier sanctions against the African-Americans than the white participants."

The attorney general's office sued 50 individuals after a felony securities fraud investigation into "Co-Opportunities International" and "Friends Helping Friends." The lawsuits contend that a person could lose a $2,000 buy-in, while those who ran the scheme would make several thousand dollars in profits.

Rogers said none of the names of 59 white people he submitted to the attorney general's office have been listed in documents. Richard Linstrom, deputy attorney general working on the lawsuits, said he hasn't received any additional names from Rogers.

In a statement issued Tuesday evening, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa also stated that none of the names the NAACP accused of participating in the pyramid schemes have been reported to her office.

"We were able to find 50 people to sue," Linstrom said. "We identified people we could find based on eyewitnesses and undercover police surveillance. This was mostly victim driven."

Linstrom said his office always investigates any allegations of impropriety and dismissed the NAACP's charges of racial prejudice as "flatly untrue."

"We looked at the degree of deception and the money they received," Linstrom said of how fines were levied against participants. So far, he added, financial settlements have been made to victims and no lawsuits adjudicated.

Del Papa said the NAACP's charge that the investigation was racially tinged "is simply untrue, irresponsible and unfortunate."

Rogers said he is not satisfied with that answer and that the NAACP is calling for a federal probe of how the attorney general's office handled the case.