August 20, 2008
California Mafia Bilks Seniors on Cuba Trip
A California based travel agency ripped off seniors to the tune of $160,000 with "Humanitarian and Religious Trips to Cuba" snake oil:
ORANGE COUNTY— California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the arrest of an Orange County travel agent who sold more than $160,000 in “bogus travel packages” to senior citizens who wanted to visit Cuba for religious and cultural purposes.“The suspect allegedly ripped off dozens of senior citizens who wanted to travel to Cuba for religious and cultural purposes,” Attorney General Brown said. “Peddling these bogus travel packages has earned Mr. Rendon a trip to court to face criminal charges,” Brown added.
The 78 felony charges, filed in Orange County Superior Court on April 8, allege that Ralph Adam Rendon, 31, of Santa Ana, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from people who wanted to go on religious trips to Cuba. On Tuesday, Orange County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Rendon. Bail was set at $170,000.
Ostensibly, the trips were designed to connect Jewish and Greek Orthodox Americans with members of their faith in Cuba. In 2006, Rendon began advertising his travel agency, “USA to Cuba,” in religious magazines in an effort to target Jewish and Greek Orthodox people who wanted to travel to Cuba for religious purposes.
Rendon directed victims to pay $1,000 in upfront fees to his alleged business “USA/AAE Scholarship Foundation,” but put his private address on the return envelop. After victims paid this upfront fee, Rendon requested an additional $2,580 and then canceled the trip. Rendon told the travelers that the U.S. Treasury Department had blocked all religious trips to Cuba, which was false.
Read the rest here.
All is not lost for the victims of this crime as there are plenty of travel agencies here in intransigent Miami that will arrange those "humanitarian and religious" (winkwink) trips to Cuba for them for the right price.
H/T Carlos C.
Posted by Val Prieto at August 20, 2008 08:07 AM
Comments
screw'em they tried to con the law and a con managed to con them. If I am not mistaken there are less than 1,500 members of the Jewish faith left in Cuba. I don't believe for or second, nor does anyone else here, that they were going to help out their brothers and sisters. I love this Jews of Cuba http://www.jewishcuba.org/ site, I assumed their FAQ page would tell me about Jews in Cuba, in fact it is a long ass list of dos and don'ts if you are visiting Cuba.
I looked up any info I could about the Greek Orthodox community in Cuba because frankly I didn't know it existed. All I could find is that they have one church which was recently constructed and financed by Fidel of all people. I think he was just looking for an excuse for people to come visit.
Posted by: theCardinal ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 20, 2008 11:34 AM
I'm a bit surprised that this happened here in Orange County. Mr Rendon could probably have continued operating his "business" much longer in the Bay Area.
Posted by: Ken Hahn at August 20, 2008 11:59 AM
I read an article on the LA Times a few months (maybe weeks) back about something similiar to this. Not sure if this is the same case or a different case. I'm pretty sure it's the same case. I'll look for the link.
Posted by: j2tharome at August 20, 2008 01:25 PM
Okay, I was correct. It was a few months back (April, to be exact). Here's the link...
Posted by: j2tharome at August 20, 2008 01:31 PM
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch (I think that's the title, equivalent to Pope, apparently) visited Cuba for the opening of that church and gave Fidel Castro (who was still functional at the time) an "order of merit" or honorary medal of some kind. And no, this particular religious denomination has absolutely no historical relevance of any significance in Cuba. But hey, it was a good PR opportunity, it got a decent amount of press internationally, and Castro, Inc. was happy to play the religion/tolerance card. Don't ask for my opinion of the Patriarch or his denomination.
Posted by: asombra at August 20, 2008 03:16 PM
Heh! Heh! Heh! Poetic Justice.
Posted by: Firefly at August 20, 2008 09:29 PM