AIDS Charity Founder Charged in Alleged Matching-Gift Scam
April 8, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
The founder of a Washington, D.C., AIDS charity and four former Bank of America workers were charged this week with falsifying donations to the organization to collect matching contributions from the bank, according to the Washington Examiner and Forbes.
Stephan Bekale, a former Penn State University basketball player and founder of Hoops for Africa, was indicted along with the ex-bank employees on federal fraud charges. Prosecutors allege the suspects recruited Bank of America workers to make phony donations to the charity and collected $276,000 through the company’s match.
Mr. Bekale, 31, a native of Gabon whose parents died of AIDS, started the HIV/AIDS prevention charity in 2002. He was arrested Tuesday in Indianapolis, where he now works as a consultant.
