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| Ayala Yakobzon |
A Jewish charitable organization was slapped with a lawsuit after it used a sick little girl to solicit donations, but the parents of the girl never received a dollar, according to court proceedings in New York.
The non-profit has been using the story and image of the child with disabilities to solicit donations, the couple said in a $5 million lawsuit.
The Aleh Foundation has posted a picture of Ayala Yakobzon on their website and asked for money to help her.
"Ayala, a beautiful, brilliant five-year-old, who was born with spina bifida and is paralyzed from the waist down," the Aleh website read.
"Aleh Foundation is here to help her family turn their home into a handicapped friendly facility, and to ease their financial burdens," the website also stated.
“The funds have been collected, but Aleh did not provide it," the parents stated in the lawsuit.
The girl’s story was recently removed from the website and replaced with a story of another child.
Aleh’s founder Rabbi Shlomo Braun, and administrator Shlomo Berger were named in the lawsuit.
The organization raised $523,799 and spent $513,460, leaving just $10,000 to distribute for the needy, according to financial information for 2011.
The lawsuit accuses the foundation of "misuse of photographs obtained fraudulently and in furtherance of a fraud,” and concludes that Ayala and her parents have suffered extreme humiliation and distress.