Countywide : Owner Pays $25,000 to Settle Fraud Case
The owner of a company that allegedly gathered sales leads by posing as a nonprofit organization has agreed to pay $25,000 in civil penalties to settle fraud claims, the district attorney’s office announced Wednesday.
Charles Bertollini, owner and president of the now-defunct Citizens for Clean Water Inc., admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, officials said.
He was charged in a 1987 complaint filed by the county and the state attorney general’s office with mailing out questionnaires to residents in Southern California that identified his company as a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting raw statistical information.
In fact, the mailing was a ruse to develop sales leads for a water-treatment device sold by a business run by Bertollini, according to prosecutors.
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