DENVER — A man who, among other ill-fated business pursuits, founded a breast cancer charity with a creative name was sentenced to 14 days in jail this week after he was found in contempt of a Denver County court.
Castle Rock’s Adam Cole Shryock, 33, received the sentence after being found in contempt of court for violation a temporary restraining order, a stipulated preliminary injunction and an asset freeze. He has been ordered to report to jail on Friday.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers’ office is still in the process of investigating Shryock’s charities after filing a lawsuit against “Boobies Rock!, Inc.” in June. The lawsuit accuses Shryock, its founder, of using money that donors believed would go towards the fight against breast cancer for his own personal gain.
A county court placed a temporary restraining order against fundraising on “Boobies Rock!” and “Say No 2 Cancer,” another one of Shyrock’s charitable organizations, after the lawsuit was filed. However, Suthers’ office said “Say No 2 Cancer” continued to take in money for one additional weekend after that restraining order was put into place.
Suthers’ office also accused Shryock of trying to evade the asset freeze by requesting that funds be sent directly to his home by money order only.
And in August, Shryock is accused of starting a new charitable venture called “I Heart This Bar” in which he hired promotional managers and models to sell merchandise at college football tailgate parties across the country. This, Suthers’ office argued, violated the stipulated preliminary injunction the court had leveled against Shryock.
“Models walked around stadium parking lots telling customers they were selling merchandise to raise money for a college ‘scholarship fund,’” Suthers said. “In reality, the ‘scholarship fund’ was nothing more than a cash bonus for the promotional managers and the entire scheme ran afoul of the court’s orders.”
After hearing evidence on the case in January hearing, a Denver County judge found Shryock was indeed in contempt of court and issued the 14-day jail sentence.
During the hearing, a former “I heart This Bar” promotional manager testified that she quickly realized the charity was a scam, Suthers’ office wrote in a press release. That is not unlike some of the testimony that came out of some of the hearings associated with the original lawsuit against “Boobies Rock!”
“In reality, very little of the money (Shryock’s organizations) collected went to legitimate cancer groups,” Suthers said. ”Shryock tapped those funds to buy himself a BMW, subscribe to an online dating service, and pay his bar and cleaning service tabs.”
Suthers said “Boobies Rock” hired models, who sold t-shirts, beer koozies, bracelets and other items with pro-breast or anti-cancer images and slogans all over the country — mostly in bars. The models allegedly told bar owners and customers that anywhere from 40 to 90 percent of the revenue from their purchases would go to fight cancer.
It was not until the organizations who were supposed to be receiving “Boobies Rock!” donations threatened to sue Shyrock for fraud that those organizations saw any of the money they had been promised, Suthers said.
Suthers also accused Shyrock of using “Say No2 Cancer,” which was launched in January of 2013, to run a similar scheme.
“The IRS has no record of awarding tax-exempt status to Say No2 Cancer,” Suthers wrote. “Shryock passed through the absolute bare minimum to a series of legitimate nonprofit charities to keep his scheme alive.”