Lamar Odom’s cancer charity took donations from outside sources, disbursed funds primarily to young basketball players

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

LOS ANGELES – ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” sports news program examined eight years of tax records for the charity started by basketball star Lamar Odom called Cathy’s Kids – a tax-exempt 501 © 3 named in honor of his late mother, who died of stomach cancer.

ESPN reported on March 31 that while the charity had raised an estimated $2.2 million since its inception in 2004, it had not given one single dime to cancer-related causes. The report stated that over $1.3 million had, however, been funneled into "elite" youth traveling basketball teams.

This did not go over well with Odom. In a sit-down interview with ESPN, when asked about the charity and its finances, the L.A. Clippers would only reply “It’s my money” before shaking hands with the interviewer and walking off the set.

But FOX411’s examination of the charity seems to show donations have come from many donors other than Odom.

The L.A. Clippers star and his wife, reality star Khloe Kardashian, have been running auctions under the charitable Giving Works arm of eBay for several years. According to the eBay Giving Worksguidelines, a designated percentage – 15 percent in Odom and Kardashian's case -- is directly paid to the chosen charity. The site’s rep told us eBay Giving Works has “raised over $28,000 for Cathy’s Kids since June 2010.”

In 2011, Yahoo! teamed up with the Kardashian family, offering to make a donation to Cathy’s Kids every time somebody made Yahoo! their homepage.

In 2009, FOX411’s Pop Tarts column covered a star-studded Hollywood fundraiser attended by Odom and a number of other L.A. Lakers, which was held to benefit the foundation, with tickets costing $150. The focus of the event was cancer fundraising.

Odom’s wife and her sister Kim have also both tweeted to their millions of followers messages like “Get 40% off all our health & beauty products on jpselects.com/Kardashian and help us support @CathysKidsFound & @StJude.”

A rep for JP Selects told us: “The products only sold about 700 units and they were giving .25 cents from each unit. Roughly under $200 was donated from the sale through JP Selects to go to Cathy's kids.” The rep added the payment was made by the manufacturer.

But Odom and Khloe Kardashian's rep defended Cathy’s Kids, saying nothing wrong has been done.

"No charitable funds were misused, and the IRS has repeatedly given Cathy’s Kids a clean bill of health," their publicist Jill Fritzo told FOX411.

When first contacted, Fritzo said the charity remained active, but on second thought said the charity is “dormant,” and that funds from the many eBay auctions are just sitting there waiting to be used.

“The charity is now dormant so that money (from eBay) is still there. They need a new person to run the charity and it will be revamped,” Fritzo told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “Their accountants are working on this, it’s all above board and legit and through the IRS, there is just no one running it.”

________

 

Hoops fraud.