Minnesota's attorney general accused Value Village thrift shops on Monday, Nov. 24 for stealing from its charity partners and misleading donors and faulty practices.
Savers, the parent company of Value Village has 330 stores around the globe and 150 non profits partners, Seattle Times reports.
Aside Savers, different non profit groups also face lawsuits by the Minnesota AG including Courage Kenny Foundation, Lupus Foundation of Minnesota and True Friends for allegedly not religiously checking their deals with the company
What these non profit organizations do is they solicit and collect donations of used clothing from local households and then deliver it to Savers and then they are paid based on the amount of goods contributed.
In 2013, Savers paid its partner nonprofits over $180 million.
The lawsuit claimed that Savers use the names of its charities to conduct their business even though it actually operates everything from mailers to telemarketing and picking up items at donors' homes.
Aside from that, the company doesn't reveal just how much it keeps from the donations intended to be given to the charities.
Savers, as a professional fundraiser, failed to reveal the difference between market value and fees paid to charities to the state Attorney General's office
After the company acquires the goods, it sells it for a much higher price. A dress sold for $6.99 at a thrift store while the charity gets 40 cents per cubic foot of clothing.
The company also allegedly underreported donations even if the goods were actually listed out in its truckers' logs, and didn't give away non-clothing donations including jewelry to electronics as it reportedly do not donate these items, and failed to give items intended for a certain charity because they mixed up all donations intended for one charity with another.
All in all, the value of the underreported items amounted to a whopping $1.16 million in 2013.
