Employees of a telemarketing company selling light bulbs and trash bags inaccurately posed as disabled or disadvantaged people, charges a civil suit filed in 3rd District Court by the Utah attorney general's office.
Jerry Landon Gray, Grayco Inc., and Disadvantaged Work Program are named in the suit, which alleges violations of the Deceptive Sales Practices Act and the Charitable Solicitations Act. Gray, known as Lanny Gray, is founder, president and registered agent of Grayco Inc., the telemarketing and retail sales business, the suit says.Gray did provide professional fund raising through Grayco to Family House, a charitable organization, says the suit. "In exchange for . . . 90 percent of funds collected on behalf of the charitable purpose of Family House, defendants Gray and Grayco allegedly performed the functions of professional fund-raisers for that organization," said Heidi Sorenson of the attorney general's office.
The suit says neither Gray nor Grayco had a professional fund-raiser's permit issued by the state Division of Consumer Protection.
The suit says the company duped consumers by saying money paid for the products benefited disabled or disadvantaged people and that solicitors represented themselves as having that type of problem. Actually, an investigator for the division, Russ R. Sommers, went undercover to infiltrate the organization and discovered that the employees weren't seriously disadvantaged or disabled, the suit says.
It seeks an injunction restraining the defendants from violating the acts, a court order banning Gray from fund raising in Utah and reimbursement for consumers who purchased products or made donations.