10:50AM EST: Lakewood, NJ – Kars4Kids was shocked by the recent false allegations in a recent story in The Star Ledger (“Alleged Ponzi scheme ensnares Kars4Kids,” published December 12). When confronted with the mistruth in their piece, The Star Ledger agreed last night to remove the story from their website, where it is no longer found. Further, Kars4Kids anticipates a retraction and apology in the publication for the damage done to its organization.

The article misstated facts about Kar4Kids and suggested that Kars4Kids was involved in “a massive, international Ponzi scheme” and in laundering money. Both suggestions were absolutely false, and were never made anywhere, including in the court papers cited by The Star Ledger. The newspaper further misreported on a civil litigation that has nothing whatsoever to do with Kars4Kids.

Unfortunately, these gross misrepresentations in the Star Ledger’s defamatory story, which were, in turn, picked up by numerous other media outlets and internet sites, suggest that the editorial decisions made to publish the piece were not motivated by journalistic concerns. So what was the motivation? One can only guess.

“We are sorry that this story, which had no merit whatsoever, distressed so many of our long-time supporters, volunteers, members of our community, and those who benefit from our services,” said Yehudah Meth, Director of Communications for Kars4Kids. “Indeed, we were so shocked by what we read that we’ve had a difficult time responding to the many people who need to hear from us that none of what they’ve read was true. Not only was the reputation of our organization damaged, but also the thousands of families that we support with our programs. We are working around the clock to undo this malicious attack.”

(YWN World Headquartes – NYC)