The bracelets were supposed to help veterans’ groups. They didn’t, AG’s lawsuit says

The website for Fallen Hero Bracelets’ makes lofty claims:

That its sales support 40 veterans’ organizations.

That it has a program to give service dogs to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

And that it has a 100 percent customer satisfaction guarantee.

In fact, the Spanaway-based nonprofit didn’t donate to any such charities or provide service dogs to veterans, and has an F from the Better Business Bureau, according to a lawsuit brought by the state Attorney General’s Office.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court against Fallen Hero Bracelets and Michael Friedmann, who the suit says identifies himself as the company’s president, chief executive officer, chief legal officer and director.

“In addition to not providing any money to charity, Friedmann has been known to sue customers who complain about slow delivery,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a press release Thursday.

Friedmann did not respond to News Tribune requests for comment.

The suit alleges Friedmann violated the Consumer Protection and Charitable Solicitations acts, and asks the court to fine him up to $2,000 per violation. It also seeks an order that he stop his practices and pay restitution to consumers who were affected.

The lawsuit and press release give this account of the nonprofit’s operations:

The website www.fallenherobracelets.com sells bracelets, hats, badges, engraved bullets and other items “bearing names of servicemembers, the names or logos of military or patriotic organizations, or other military or patriotic themes.”

As of June 14, the company hadn’t donated money to any of the 40 veterans’ organizations the website claims its sales support.

The site also tells customers that purchases and donations will help get service dogs to veterans suffering from PTSD, but that hasn’t happened either.

“This project is still a work in progress but we are working diligently to establish a functioning program in which soldiers can access the resources which we can provide and supply in order to effectively mitigate the symptoms of PTSD that so definitively and negatively impact our fighting men and women,” the website reads.

A logo on the site advertises an A+ and accreditation from the “Business Bureau of America,” which doesn’t appear to exist.

The real Better Business Bureau gives fallenherobracelets.com an F rating, and reports “a pattern of complaints from consumers regarding delivery and customer service issues.”

Customers alleged they didn’t get their purchases, and that a company representative was rude and used profanity when contacted.

The company denied the allegations, but the Better Business Bureau decided in May that “the pattern of complaints still exist.”

Fallen Hero Bracelets allegedly sends profanity-laced letters and emails to customers who complain to government agencies or the Better Business Bureau, and tells the agencies the customers are lying.

The company also takes customers who complain to small claims court, alleges they owe money and reports them to collection agencies.

When customers try to cancel the charges, the company tries to block it.

The Attorney General’s Office said it had gotten 11 complaints about the company.

KREM 2 reported Wednesday that a Spokane-area woman ordered a T-shirt on the website, and when she didn’t have it several weeks later, called and email the company but didn’t hear back.

She said that a couple weeks later, when she hadn’t heard from the company and didn’t have the shirt, she called to cancel the $40 charge with her credit card company.

Several months later she got the shirt, and it came with a letter from “Chief Legal Officer” Michael Friedmann that said she had committed bank fraud, for which she owed $140 extra, and that her account had been sent to collections, KREM 2 reported.

The company is suing her for $1,182, and her credit union for $5,000.

Friedmann, the Attorney General’s lawsuit states, “does not have a law degree and has never been licensed to practice law.”

A lengthy auto reply to a News Tribune email to the company Thursday, from “Chief Legal Officer M. Friedmann,” said in part: “We do pursue civil action against individuals who defame us, or infringe on our intellectual property rights. We also pursue civil action against individuals who breach contract and defraud us through premature or fraudulent chargebacks and disputes.”

Among the “dubious” claims on the Fallen Hero Bracelets website, the Attorney General’s lawsuit alleges, is that there have been more than 1,223,218 sales, and that the company offers a 100 percent consumer satisfaction guarantee.

“Up to 47 dozen shirts an hour. Quick turn around,” the site reads.

www.3charlie.com is a fake name for Fallen Hero Bracelets, and has links to the bracelet site, the lawsuit says.

The complaint also says the defendants run www.kopfjagerarms.com, also known as The Midnight Coal Company and Tier One Tactical.

That site says it has “more than one million firearms” for sale, and claims part of each sale goes to the Roberts Ridge Foundation and Fallen Hero Bracelets “to help them in their effort to honor and remember our fallen heroes.”

The Roberts Ridge Foundation, also known as the Benjamin Foundation, is named in the lawsuit as a defendant.

Friedmann allegedly created it.