GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A pair of California men who claimed to represent superstar singer Mariah Carey is headed to federal prison after they defrauded $100,000 from the Grand Rapids Pride Center.
Bringing Carey, diva and gay icon, to the 2016 Grand Rapids Pride festival would have been a major achievement.
Instead, it was a fraud that nearly ended the center’s ability to help the LGBTQ community.
“We’re thinking we’re going to bring this community this amazing Pride show, and also use the revenue to fund all the programs and services we do here at the Pride Center,” said Grand Rapids Pride Center administrator Larry DeShane, Jr. “It’s Mariah Carey, it was a wonderful opportunity.”
Federal court documents filed in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo lay out the case against Allen Dean Gordon Clayborn, who also called himself Allen Meme and Raul Meija Pereida.
“They knew their target was going to be small nonprofits, places that really needed that type of endorsement, but their story was fantastic,” DeShane said
The fraudsters came to Las Vegas and took festival representatives to the singer’s show, although federal investigators say the singer had no idea that her name was being used in the fraud.
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