An Orange County man was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in federal prison after admitting to defrauding three companies out of $3 million for protective gloves that were promised but never delivered at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to the 87-month sentence, Christopher John Badsey, 63, of Lake Forest, was ordered to pay $1.94 million in restitution after pleading guilty to four counts of wire fraud.
In June and July 2020, when personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves and hand sanitizer were in short supply, Badsey claimed his Irvine-based company, First Defense International Security Services Corp., could supply millions of boxes of nitrile gloves, according to court documents.
Badsey entered into contracts to sell gloves to three other companies, according to court documents, and required each of them to deposit about $1 million before he could inspect the promised goods.
According to court documents, the companies transferred a total of $3.2 million to accounts controlled by Badsey, his company or an unnamed co-schemer.
Prosecutors, however, say Badsey did not have gloves and made up elaborate excuses whenever customers inquired about the delivery. His false stories included “absurd allegations that government agents were blocking access to his warehouse,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
In the meantime, he used the deposit money to finance expensive purchases, authorities said, including a yacht, a pontoon boat, two Mercedes-Benz automobiles, two Ford pickup trucks, a recreational vehicle, a tractor, three ATVs and fishing equipment.
He lost all titles to items purchased with the stolen funds, as well as $58,923 in cash.
Court documents show that Badsey — who had already pleaded guilty to three firearms offenses, including grossly negligent discharge of a firearm, in November 2016 — had initially pleaded for a much lighter sentence: one year and one day, three years of supervised release and a $400 special assessment.
