TALLAHASSEE - A top
Florida official has asked a federal government agency to
look into what’s become a troubling trend revolving around
the partial condominium collapse in Surfside.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis on Tuesday
sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission over concerns
about one of the largest fundraising websites in the world.
“We’re going to have more disasters. This is going to happen
again, and all I’m asking is for GoFundMe to be more
transparent,” he said.
Patronis’ move was partly prompted by a surge of fake
accounts set up after the June 24 collapse.
“We reached out to GoFundMe. GoFundMe admitted that they had
already targeted 21 fraudulent accounts,” he said. “I want
to ensure and see if this is any violation of the Unfair and
Deceptive Practices Act.”
Patronis said that in a state prone to disasters like
hurricanes, it’s important that generous dollars reach
people who are truly in need.
“We will have more opportunities for the fraudsters to take
advantage of the generosity of others that want to help, and
I feel like GoFundMe needs to be held accountable, and their
business model needs to do more than let me know they’ve
found 21 fraudulent accounts,” he said. “They have done
nothing to ensure the transparency of the dollars that are
donated by good-hearted people actually get to those that
truly need it.”
Patronis said his request for an investigation is part of
his ongoing efforts to prevent scammers from targeting
Floridians.
“It’s my role as the CFO of the state of Florida to be the
watchdog over the people’s dollars. This is no different,”
he said, “whether I’m watching your dollars here from
Tallahassee or I’m watching your dollars as somebody who’s
trying take advantage of you that may be a third party. This
is part of my job, day in, day out.”
A spokesperson for GoFundMe released a statement that reads
in part, “Immediately following the news of the Surfside
condominium collapse, we mobilized a dedicated team to begin
monitoring the platform for fundraisers that were created to
help individuals and families. That is why once we
identified suspicious activity with 23 fundraisers, we
quickly investigated and removed the fundraisers from our
platform before any funds could be raised. No fraud was
detected, and as a result, $2.4 million dollars has been
raised to support the Surfside families and affected
communities.”