NY Modeling Agency Charged with Fraud - East Idaho News
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NY Modeling Agency Charged with Fraud

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Getty 091813 FashionModel?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1379520399203Milan Zeremski/Getty Images(NASSAU COUNTY, N.Y.) — New York authorities Wednesday morning busted a Long Island modeling agency, filing fraud and grand larceny charges against the owner and three others accused of profiting off people hoping for stardom.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice is scheduled to lay out the scheme during a news conference Wednesday. Officials tell ABC News the modeling agency, New Faces Models & Talent, took fees from unsuspecting would-be stars and made specific promises their faces would appear in magazines and catalogues. Those promises, investigators allege, were bogus.

“Dozens of clients” were defrauded by the agency “overcharging for photo shoots, misrepresenting the terms of contracts, and promising clients lucrative roles and modeling jobs for their children that never existed,” Rice’s office said in a news release Wednesday.

Three people surrendered to police Wednesday morning and are to be arraigned later. A fourth, the owner of the company, was also scheduled to surrender but did not. He’s being sought by police right now.

So far, detectives said the alleged scammers bilked over 60 families out of $250,000 total, though that sum is expected to rise to $400,000 or more as additional victims come forward.

The agency’s phone system was not working Wednesday morning and would not connect calls seeking comment.

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