Better Business Bureau: ABC News Investigations of the Year
A look back at reports that had an impact.
Dec. 31, 2010 — -- This week, the Blotter has been reprising 10 different Ross Unit investigations that made a difference in 2010. Today: Charges of "pay for play" at the Better Business Bureau, and justice for a federal agent accused of murder.
Better Business Bureau Changes Its Grading System After ABC News Investigation
An ABC News investigation of the Better Business Bureau detailed allegations that the BBB is running a "pay to play" scheme in which A plus ratings are given exclusively to businesses that pay for a BBB membership while businesses that don't want to become members are often saddled with lower grades.
A 20/20 report that aired on November 11 showed how a group of Los Angeles business owners, determined to prove the BBB accreditation system was a sham, paid $425 apiece to buy BBB memberships for a number of fictitious firms, including one for a non-existent company called Hamas, named after the Middle East terror group. The L.A. BBB awarded a membership and an A minus rating to a non-existent sushi restaurant and an A plus to a bogus firm named after Stormfront, a white supremacist group.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE 20/20 REPORT
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL BLOTTER STORY
The ABC News investigation also showed how two small Los Angeles businesses, with an ABC News producer and camera present, were told by BBB telemarketers that their C grades could be raised to an A plus if they paid to join the BBB. After Terri Hartman, the manager of Liz's Antique Hardware, paid the $565 membership fee her C grade was replaced with an A plus and the one complaint was wiped off the record.
In another case, Carmen Tellez, the owner of a company that provides clowns for parties, says she was also told she had to pay to raise her C minus grade, based on a two-year old complaint that she said had already been resolved. The C minus became an A plus the very next day after she provided her credit card for the $395 membership charge.
Impact:Just days after the ABC News report aired, Steve Cox, the CEO and President of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, apologized to his members for the lapses documented by ABC News and announced major reforms of the BBB grading system. Cox said the BBB would no longer give extra points to businesses that pay for accreditation. In addition, the BBB announced that it will conduct a review of its accrediting process and "as soon as possible, make changes that will apply system-wide." The BBB says an "independent third party" will assist in the review process.
Cox also announced the BBB would launch an "immediate investigation" of its Los Angeles chapter. The controversial grading system that was used by the BBB nationwide was devised by Bill Mitchell, head of the L.A. BBB, and first used by the L.A. chapter. Just last week, with the probe of his organization ongoing, Mitchell announced his resignation.
ATF Agent Will Clark Walks Free After Murder Charge
On Sept. 7, 2008 ATF agent Will Clark was leaving his condo in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands when a neighbor asked him for help. Marguerite Duncan was trying to leave the condo complex after an argument with her boyfriend, Markus Sukow, but Sukow was blocking her car and yelling at her.
Clark had been headed to the gym, but Duncan got in his car to get away from her belligerent boyfriend, who was wielding a foot-long metal flashlight, according to witnesses. Sukow then either struck Clark's car with the flashlight or swung it at Clark or both, according to witness accounts. Clark Clark, who as an ATF agent is always on duty and always armed, shot Sukow and killed him.
Even though Clark was cleared by an internal review, the local government charged him with second degree murder. The case pitted local cops against federal agents and caused furious federal authorities to pull ATF agents from the U.S. Virgin Islands while crime and gun violence in the popular tourist destination climbed. In 2009, the murder rate in the U.S. territory was eight times that of the mainland.
Stories on the Blotter in July and October helped publicize the case and the outrage of federal law enforcement agents, who felt Clark should be honored as a hero instead of prosecuted.
Impact:The case collapsed in late October. In the glare of publicity, the original judge recused herself, and the case was reassigned. Will Clark walked out of a St. Thomas courtroom a free man after the new judge, in a surprising move, dismissed the case on a technicality, saying there was a procedural error in the medical examiner's report identifying Sukow's body. The judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning his ruling could not be appealed.