Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin is joining attorneys general from 35 other states and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in a federal lawsuit against four “sham cancer charities” they accuse of fleecing donors of more than $187 million.

Attorney General Doug Chin (center)

A news release based on the federal court complaint said the four groups promised donors their gifts would help cancer patients, but donations instead principally benefited the organizations’ “paid fundraisers, perpetrators, their families and friends.” Two of them, the Breast Cancer Society of America, Inc., and Children’s Cancer Fund of America, Inc., have already agreed to be dissolved in settlement discussions with the government, the release said.

Those groups as well as the other two organizations, Cancer Fund of America, Inc., and Cancer Support Services, Inc.. are all run by James T. Reynolds Sr. and Rose Perkins, their son James T. Reynolds II and family friend Kyle Effler. Of those individuals, all but Reynolds Sr. so far have agreed to settlements that will ban them from fundraising, charity management and oversight of charitable assets.

Litigation will continue against Reynolds Sr. and the latter two cancer organizations, according to the release.

Using telemarketing calls, direct mail, websites and materials distributed by the Combined Federal Campaign — an annual fund-raising effort targeting federal employees — the individuals and their charities raised donations that were subsequently used for high-paying jobs for family and friends, cars, cruises, gym and dating site memberships and even college tuition, the AGs and FTC allege. They are also accused of hiring professional fundraisers who often kept 85 percent of donations.

Because the individuals and organizations allegedly hid their activities on required filings, Chin and other AGs accuse them of filing false statements with state regulators.

“I am happy to join with our state and federal colleagues as we present a unified front combating charity fraud of the worst kind,” said Chin in the statement. “With our actions today, we are permanently ending deceptive solicitations that claimed to assist children with cancer and breast cancer patients — solicitations that targeted residents of Hawaii and every other state in the country.”