Iosif "Joe" Skorohodov

[May 24th, 2006] We give this week's Rogue, Iosif "Joe" Skorohodov , high marks for creativity, a lower score for brains and a failing grade in ethics.

Skorohodov owns westcoastwagers.net, a company in the highly competitive field of online betting.

Looking to differentiate himself from the rest of the riffraff last year, Skorohodov borrowed the name of Oregon Food Bank and offered to make a $5 contribution to that well-respected nonprofit each time a new customer signed up for westcoastwagers.net.

To advertise this windfall for Oregon's hungry, Skorohodov, who lives in Salem, blasted text messages to cell phones all over the Portland area. Outraged recipients started blasting back to the Food Bank.

The shaky underpinnings of Skorohodov's scheme then became obvious. While the Food Bank may at times feed gamblers and their luckless dependents, the average citizen would probably struggle to see the link between online betting and bailing out the poor.

"One donor contacted us and said, 'What are you guys doing getting involved with gambling?' says Food Bank Executive Director Rachel Bristol. "We would never do that, nor do we do telephone solicitations."

The Food Bank asked callers to contact Attorney General Hardy Myers' office. At least a dozen did, says Victoria Cox, a spokeswoman for the AG's charitable-contributions section.

"That many calls indicates a lot of activity," Cox says. "Most people just ignore those kinds of contacts."

The AG's investigation found that Skorohodov had violated the Oregon Charitable Solicitations Act and the Unlawful Trade Practices Act because—brace yourselves, dear readers—Skorohodov never actually made any arrangement to feed the poor by contributing to the Food Bank!

As a result of his shocking duplicity, he now must pay the state a $5,000 fine, and he has agreed never to engage in such practices again.

Skorohodov was unavailable for comment.