Community Corner

AIDS Services Foundation Scammed of $16,480 Worth of Items

A man who attended the organization's Red Ball fundraiser In Laguna Beach last September is being accused of bouncing checks. The case is expected to be given to the OC District Attorney's office next week.

The Orange County AIDS Services Foundation (ASF) has become the victim of an alleged scammer who didn’t come through with a promised donation, and then made off with a number of pricey auction items before the organization ultimately filed a fraud report.

The total loss for the Irvine-based charity, which gives services to hundreds of HIV-positive people throughout Orange County, is $16,480.

The incident occurred on September 24, 2011, the night of ASF’s annual Red Ball gala, held at the Festival of Arts grounds in Laguna Beach. The suspect purchased a $5,000 table online for the event the night before it took place, after banking hours, according to ASF communications director Marc Montminy.

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“At the event, he tried to pay for his auction purchases with a credit card, but that was declined,” Montminy tells Patch. “He then offered to pay with an e-check.”

He was allowed to leave with the auction items, which included airline ticket and hotel room vouchers, a man’s watch, Disneyland passes, a woman’s handbag, a certificate for Botox treatments, and assorted autographed memorabilia, all totaling $11,480.

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“We didn’t find out the checks for the table and items were both bad until Monday when we got back into the office,” says Montminy.

Meanwhile, in the months after the event—and after much wrangling with the suspect to get him to pay up—ASF staffers became aware that he was selling the airline vouchers on Craigslist.

According to Capt. Jason Kravetz of the Laguna Beach Police Department, the case against him really began building when a man who had bought the airline vouchers discovered they had been cancelled because of non-payment.

On August 2, ASF filed a fraud report with the LBPD, and an investigation began.

The suspect is a 34-year-old Cypress resident who is on probation for fraud-related charges, according to Kravetz. Yesterday, Aug. 23, LBPD detectives went to his home to conduct a search in accordance with the man’s probation. During the search, they discovered several of the auction items, which were seized, according to police. He was interviewed, but not arrested, and the investigation is till ongoing. The man is not considered to be a flight risk.

Kravetz says detectives will present the case to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for a criminal filing sometime next week. The suspect will be facing felony charges of fraud, insufficient funds and theft.

Montminy tells Patch that ASF has since changed its payment policy regarding auctions and similar events.

“Now if we don’t get a payment with a valid credit card or cash, we have to hold the items until the money clears,” Montminy says. “We  learned our lesson. This has never happened to us before.”


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