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Todd Beard Tricked the Elderly?

Here's an L.A. Times article from 1995 that allegedly identifies current Affliction VP Todd Beard as a defrauding lout who preyed on the elderly to line his pockets. Notable quote:

Two Orange County men were sentenced Thursday for defrauding more than 1,000 mostly elderly people from across the nation of more than $10 million.

The case was one of the largest prosecutions so far in Operation Disconnect, a federal crackdown on boiler rooms that sell bogus investments or goods costing far more than their value. The FBI last year made 240 arrests involving boiler-room scams in 13 states, including California.

"This represents a continuing effort at weeding out the scurrilous telemarketers who prey on old people," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas Brown.

Todd Beard, 30, of Huntington Beach pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, plus about $9,000 in fines and restitution to victims of the scam.

Dean Bowman, 35, of San Juan Capistrano, was sentenced to six months in federal prison after pleading guilty to concealing a felony from authorities. He also was ordered to pay about $4,500 in fines and restitution.

The two are the first of nine defendants who are expected to be sentenced today and on April 3 for their part in an operation the FBI raided in March, 1993.

Brown said the scam involved dozens of telephone salespeople at the four companies who persuaded people to buy home safety products for far more than they were worth by telling victims they had won expensive prizes.

To collect the prizes, victims were told, they had to buy the products, such as bacterial spray, an emergency kit or flame retardant spray. Victims were told to send hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for prizes and products worth much less.

"They targeted the elderly because they were the most vulnerable," Brown said. "They were usually partially or fully senile, widowed and alone with no close family around. . . . They grew up in an era when if someone promised you something, more times than not they followed through, so they trusted."

Bowman's role was to make the initial calls to potential victims. He earned the company $110,000. Beard made follow-up calls to people who had been duped once to try and dupe them again. He brought in $350,000.

If this is somehow a different Todd Beard than the one involved in Affliction, I'll correct the record. From what I've been able to gather in reading about him, however, this appears quite legitimate.

And if this is all true, why on earth would the Couture's ever want to go into business with him? I'm not suggesting up front there weren't opportunities for mutual gain, but that working with someone carrying the sort of liabilities Beard offers can be very risky to Couture and his brand.

HT: The UG

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Maybe Beard is just really good and tricking old people, and Randy is pretty damn old.

by FRANKIE on Nov 13, 2008 10:25 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

*at tricking old people. Stupid no edit button.

by FRANKIE on Nov 13, 2008 10:26 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Must be him
According to court records, Beard was convicted in 1993 in Arizona of attempted forgery and illegal telemarketing, and was convicted in 1995 of federal mail and wire fraud charges in California and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison.

International Business Times

Old jokes aside, it really seems like this was a big con from Beard. He freaked out only after he was asked about the money.

by mythbuster on Nov 13, 2008 11:11 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

One of his listed crimes in the MMA payout article was boiler room telemarketing scams, somehow I doubt there is two Todd Beards that both were involved with the same type of scam at the same general time.

As for Randy’s involvement, he probably just found out about it recently when his wife hired a Private Investigator to look into Beard. This might be why Beard has been completely in the background with everything Affliction up until now. It also leads me to wonder if Affliction clothing was started with the funding of this scam artist (Beard is one of the founding members), I’d hate to think that those overpriced t-shirts came to be with money scammed from little old ladies.

by who me on Nov 13, 2008 1:08 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

This guy is a real scumbag and I hope Affliction does not make it to 2009. People wanna talk bad about Dana and the Fertitta’s well this guy makes zuffa brass look like charity workers to mma. Hopefully their second show never happens, UFC skoops Fedor any all the other fighters that are worthwhile, and this scumbag goes back to ripping off people in nursing home; because he does’nt belong in our sport!

by irepdaronx on Nov 13, 2008 2:48 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Of course, we don't really *WANT* him to go back to scamming

the elderly, but we’d prefer him do that than ruin our sport ;)

There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.

by misterjonez on Nov 13, 2008 4:48 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

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"All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it." -- H.L. Mencken
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