D.C., Maryland, Virginia AGs close fake charities that stole from children’s candy sales

The attorneys general of the District, Maryland and Virginia have shut down a pair of charities accused of pocketing money made by kids who sold candy.

The Maryland Youth Club of America and Virginia Youth Club of America recruited middle and high schoolers from low-income neighborhoods in Ward 7 and Ward 8 and had the kids sell candy to people in wealthier areas, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said Tuesday.

The kids were told to tell buyers that sales would fund youth programs, trips, laptops, part-time employment and other charitable benefits.

Instead, the attorneys general claim, executives, including Jule Huston, president of both organizations, kept the proceeds for themselves. Between 2018 and 2022, the two groups brought in over $857,000 in gross sales.

Mr. Huston, a New York resident, transferred more than $23,000 from the Maryland Youth Club account to his own CashApp account, to his mother, to a corporation he created in New York and to an unnamed officer of the Virginia Youth Club, Mr. Schwalb’s office alleged.

Much of the money made by the two charities is unaccounted for, as Mr. Huston destroyed the Maryland club’s financial records for 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, Mr. Schwalb’s office said.

Joshua Comstock, a Baltimore County resident who reported the charities to a county council member after being sold candy, told WTOP-FM that “it makes me really angry. Kids already have enough to deal with without predatory child labor rackets trying to hustle away their summers.”

To resolve the allegations in the District, the two groups were dissolved, and Mr. Huston will have to prove to Mr. Schwalb’s office that the groups are also closed in Maryland and Virginia.

The groups and Mr. Huston must pay a $5,000 fine that will go to area charities for at-risk youths.

In addition, Mr. Huston and other group executives are banned from doing business or seeking donations in the District. He’s specifically banned from “serving as an officer, director, or in any fiduciary position in any DC nonprofit or trust, and from engaging in any charitable solicitation in DC, including by serving as a consultant or advisor to a charity,” Mr. Schwalb’s office said.

Mr. Huston and the groups reached separate settlements with Maryland and Virginia with similar stipulations.

Maryland also barred Mr. Huston from serving as an officer or in any role related to donations for a nonprofit, the office of Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said.

If the terms are violated, Maryland and Virginia reserved the right to try and recoup the entirety of the misappropriated candy revenue from Mr. Huston and the twin charities, Mr. Schwalb’s office said.