An Orange County man was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison Friday after admitting he defrauded three companies out of $3 million for protective gloves that were promised but never delivered during the outbreak 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 provide millions of boxes of nitrile gloves, according to court documents.
Badsey contracted to sell gloves to three other companies, according to court documents, and required each to deposit about $1 million before they could inspect the promised goods.
The companies linked a combined $3.2 million to accounts controlled by Badsey, his company or an unnamed associate, according to court documents.
But prosecutors say Badsey didn’t have the gloves and made up elaborate excuses when his clients asked about delivery. His false stories included “absurd claims that government agents blocked access to his warehouse,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing report.
At the same time, he used deposit money to make expensive purchases, according to authorities, including a yacht, a pontoon boat, two Mercedes-Benz cars, two Ford pickups, a recreational vehicle, a tractor, three ATVs and fishing equipment.
He has forfeited all titles from items purchased with the stolen funds, along with $58,923 in cash.
Court documents show that Badsey — who previously pleaded guilty to three weapons offenses, including grossly negligent discharge of a firearm, in November 2016 — had initially argued for a much lighter sentence: a year and a day, a three-year period of supervised release and a special assessment of $400.