California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer moved Thursday to shut down a prominent charity event organizer, accusing the firm of misusing funds from affairs backed by a stable of entertainment and political luminaries -- from Michelle Pfeiffer to Michael J. Fox to Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In a 53-page complaint, state prosecutors accused fund-raiser Aaron Tonken, socialite Cynthia Gershman and two associates of orchestrating schemes that misdirected or failed to account for at least $1.5 million in charitable contributions.
Tonken has produced some of Los Angeles' glitziest charity events, including "A Family Celebration 2001," which was co-sponsored by the Clintons and people connected to the "Ally McBeal" TV series, including producer David E. Kelley and Pfeiffer, his wife. The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, said funds were improperly diverted from that event to accounts controlled by Tonken.
Gershman, the widow of Beverly Hills real estate developer Hal Gershman, has been a frequent contributor to charitable and political causes and hosted several high-profile events for the Clintons and Al Gore during the 2000 campaign season.
According to the complaint, Gershman breached her fiduciary duty as a trustee of the Gershman Foundation by giving as much as $690,000 to a defunct foundation that diverted some or all of the money to Tonken. Gershman also funneled additional funds from the foundation through Tonken, who used them to pay her public relations expenses, the complaint said.
Philip Levy, an attorney hired by Tonken to evaluate the complaint, said, "Mr. Tonken's position is that he never benefited personally from any of the events he produced."
Levy said many charities "have benefited enormously" from Tonken's events and that the fund-raiser himself had been victimized. "Mr. Tonken feels ... on more than one occasion he was taken advantage of by people who did benefit personally."
Richard Sherman, an attorney for Gershman, said he hadn't seen the complaint and couldn't address its specifics. He said Gershman, on his advice, had declined to answer questions from the attorney general's office during an investigation that has been underway for months.
Also named in the complaint were Robert Freedman and attorney Kenneth Mattes Clarke.
The suit said Freedman improperly received $200,000 from a planned "Celebrating Diana" fund-raiser, built around singer Diana Ross and sponsored by the Joan English Fund for Women's Cancer Research. The event was scratched last year.
