An Orange County man was expected to be arraigned Friday on an indictment charging him with defrauding people who paid for medical-grade gloves during the pandemic that were never delivered, causing nearly $3 million in losses.
Christopher John Badsey, 60, of Lake Forest, was arrested by FBI agents on July 8, according to the United States Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California.
Badsey is charged with four counts of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering.
According to the indictment obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Badsey told victims that he had access to millions of boxes of medical-grade nitrile gloves through his company in Irvine, called First Defense International Security Services Corp.
He allegedly asked the victims, with whom he made contractual agreements, for a deposit before delivering the gloves, saying it was to ensure the gloves were inspected.
After receiving their payment, Badsey would ask the victims to pick up the gloves from a warehouse in Los Angeles, the news release states.
However, once the victims arrived at the warehouse, Badsey and his employees would allegedly give excuses as to why the gloves could neither be inspected nor delivered.
Badsey is alleged to have left with nearly $3 million of the deposit money, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
After obtaining the victims’ wire deposits, Badsey and others are believed to have used those funds to make lavish purchases for their personal benefit.
If convicted of all charges in the six-count indictment, Badsey would face a statutory maximum sentence of 100 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The case was investigated by the FBI.