Southern California man accused of selling bogus trips to Cuba
The Orange County resident faces 78 felony charges over allegedly phony
religious tour packages.
By Susannah Rosenblatt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 18, 2008
An Orange County man posing as a travel agent has been arrested on
suspicion of selling more than $160,000 worth of bogus trips to Cuba,
authorities said Thursday.
Ralph Adam Rendon, 31, of Santa Ana faces 78 felony charges, including
grand theft and embezzlement, in connection with advertising religious
excursions for Jewish and Greek Orthodox people to meet members of their
faith in Cuba, the state attorney general's office said. Nearly three
dozen senior citizens bought the tour packages in 2006.
The victims paid Rendon $1,000 upfront to his business, the USA/AAE
Scholar****p Foundation, for the fake vacations, the attorney general's
office said. Then he would ask for an additional $2,580, but ultimately
claimed that the Treasury Department had blocked religious travel to
Cuba and canceled the trips. The department does allow humanitarian and
religious travel to the country, but told Rendon to stop selling travel
packages to the island nation.
The so-called bandit travel agent used the money to pay his rent, lease
a new Mercedes-Benz and hire a divorce attorney, officials said; he
allegedly ignored the victims' refund demands. "What's most offensive is
the fact that this person just took the money and ran off," said Gareth
Lacy, a spokesman for the attorney's general's office. "There was no
trip. There was no effort to provide a trip. It was a total scam."
People from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Utah and New York responded to
ads Rendon placed in religious magazines. Investigators began tracking
him in 2006 after receiving complaints; he turned himself in to the
court, Orange County sheriff's officials said.
Rendon also has been charged with mishandling consumer funds, trust
account violations and theft by false pretenses, and allegedly violated
laws that regulate travel agents, including failing to register with the
attorney general's office. He was arrested by Orange County sheriff's
deputies Tuesday and was released after posting $170,000 bail. If
convicted, Rendon could face a maximum sentence of decades in prison,
Lacy said.
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