By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The organizers of a bogus raffle for a luxury home near Kansas City must pay $3.7 million in refunds and fines. A St. Louis County judge on Monday also barred Gateway to a Cure from holding any other raffles.
Proceeds from the raffle were to benefit spinal-cord injury research.
More than $2 million will go to repaying people who bought nearly 14,000 sweepstakes tickets for raffles in St. Charles County, Kansas City and elsewhere.
The charity also must pay nearly $1.4 million in penalties to the state.
Attorney General Jay Nixon sued the St. Louis-area charity, claiming its founder had used the group's money to pay personal expenses, including credit card bills and trips to Colorado ski resorts.