1. The Caffeine
Awareness
Association’s
Community
Service Scam
By Dr. Lori Gore-Green

2. In a recent article by the Oneida
Daily Dispatch, New York a New
York City group admits to a
community service scam. The
group’s intention was to make
serving community service as easy
as taking an online quiz.

3. An anti-caffeine activist pleaded
guilty to the scheme this past
Thursday. According to the
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R.
Vance Jr. “a community service
sentence is a public and personal
responsibility.”

4. Marina Kushner and the group that
she founded, The Caffeine
Awareness Association, pleaded
guilty to a false-filing felony. Due to
her sentencing she will have to
complete 300 hours of actual
community service.

5. Kushner was recently arrested in
Florida after officials became
suspicious after a local defendant
filed a letter from Kushner’s group.
They were also equally as
suspicious at the website linked to
the group about “fast community
service.”

6. Before Kushner created her scam
group, she had written anti-caffeine e-books
and her group’s website
supported her messages. While the
public is made aware by the Food and
Drug Administration about the harmful
effects of too much caffeine, Kushner
took it to a whole other level.

7. Soon after the trial, the groups
website page was taken down “due
to technical difficulties.” As a part of
the scam, the group offered
community service letters certifying
completion and would charge based
on the number of hours needed for
completion.

8. All the customers had to do was take
an online quiz, but were not obligated
to pass it. The questions on the quiz
were based on the anti-caffeine e-books
that Kushner wrote and would
sell on the website. Over the several
years that the group was active, the
group received over $200,000.

9. As one could imagine, this “community
service” raised suspicions in Portland
and Washington state where the group
was headquartered.

10. It wasn’t until a 2013 case where a
judge stated that the anti-caffeine
group community service was a
“scam” and that it would not pass as
legitimate community service. New
York prosecutors are now on the
lookout for group activity that is similar
to the anti-caffeine group.