Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of The World - Controversies

Controversies

The AMFPA has in later years been the subject of several exposés in German, French, Swiss, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, British, Canadian and Danish media, suggesting unethical behaviour within the organization. The coverage has spurred criticism from charity, consumer and handicap organizations. The criticism includes:

• That AMFPA effectively poses as a charity organization although it is purely a commercial venture, in effect conning charitable people out of money.
• That only a fraction of the surplus is paid out to the handicapped artists, since only 94 (2008) of them are fully employed by the company, which in turn allegedly turns a world wide profit in the hundreds of millions US$. The precise world wide profit is confidential.
• That high salaries, favourable loans and property lease contracts are given to AMFPAs long-time legal adviser Herbert Batliner, his friends and family and other lawyers employed at the AMFPA. Recently retired Batliner is himself a controversy, being previously accused of money laundering for Colombian drug barons and for his alleged involvement in the 1999 German CDU contribution scandal.
• That funds are being diverted to unknown parties via a network of "mailbox" companies.
• The use of high pressure sales tactics by sending its main sales item, Christmas card packages to consumers via unsolicited direct mail with an option to pay afterwards.
• The secrecy maintained by the company.

No claims have been made suggesting any illegal activity by AMFPA. The criticism has been centered on what is perceived as bad ethics.