Three guilty in $600K con of PCS Charity scam lasted eight years

RALEIGH – A Fuquay-Varina man recently pled guilty to devising and executing a scheme to defraud the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (“PCS”) by conspiring to fraudulently obtain matching charitable contributions for the Boys and Girls Succeed organization. Dwayne Moorer West, age 60, faces up to 20 years in prison when sentenced later this year. Two of West’s co-conspirators pled guilty to the same charges on January 23, 2024, and are also facing up to 20 years behind bars.

“Many companies encourage their employees to support local charities by matching their employees’ charitable contributions. This defendant recruited PCS employees to make fake donations to his charity so he could fraudulently secure over a half-million dollars in matching funds from PCS. He then paid kickbacks to the employees,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Easley. “This defendant was driven by greed to take advantage of a charitable program meant to help those in need.  He now faces federal prison.”

According to documents and information presented in court, Dwayne Moorer West owned Boys and Girls Succeed, an organization that provided services to boys and girls in Wake County. Between 2010 and 2018, West conspired with Michael Lavern King, a PCS employee, and Martin Fareed Abdullah, an employee of Boys and Girls Succeed, to fraudulently obtain matched charitable contributions from PCS.

To carry out this scheme, King and Abdullah solicited multiple PCS employees to aid and assist in the fraud. West obtained bank checks that fraudulently showed large charitable donations from each PCS employee to the Boys and Girls Succeed foundation. The fraudulent checks were then used as donation receipts for submission to PCS as part of their matching charitable program. The PCS employees never made charitable donations to Boys and Girls Succeed. Instead, they received a quarterly kickback from West, Abdullah, and King for the use of their employee information. In total, PCS matched nearly $600,000 in fraudulently obtained contributions to Boys and Girls Succeed.