Thu Feb 22, 2007 — by Glenn Hauman

Anime charity event turns into scam

Alleged theft of funds cancels breast cancer fundraiser

Via Alan Kistler at Monitor Duty, an ugly convention story out on the west coast:

Anime Film Foundation (AnimeFF) was founded as a charity for breast cancer research, specifically the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The group launched the “Tour for the Cure” anime con and stated that all proceeds would be donated to breast cancer research. They recruited several people in the anime community, including those at TheOtaku.com and Richard Stott, founder of the Anime Vegas convention. MTV was ready to video tape part of the convention.

And then things went bad. It turned out that no one signed the contracts for the convention rooms. The convention had to become a single day thing when it had originally been intended to last three days. Several events were canceled. Guests were told that promised accomodations weren't available.

At the end of the day, AnimeFF representative Jeff Borncamp told the convention center people that the show was over, at which point he allegedly left with all the registration money and dealer deposits. What was supposed to be a charity event appeared to observers to be a "hit and run" scam on not only the anime and gaming communities but on people who thought they were involved in donating money to breast cancer research.

TheOtaku.com has promised to dedicate their resources to bringing all the facts to light and ensuring that this kind of thing never happens again. As far as we know, the Susan G. Komen Foundation was merely having their name taken in vain, and they do good work.

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