Orange County man gets prison for $3 million COVID fraud, forfeits yacht and $58,000 in cash

A Lake Forest man convicted of defrauding companies who paid more than $3 million for gloves during the COVID pandemic has been sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to forfeit a yacht and nearly $60,000 in cash.

Christopher John Badsey, 63, told three companies he had access to millions of boxes of nitrile gloves in June and July of 2020, a time when this crucial protective gear was in short supply with law enforcement agencies and hospitals even struggling to get access. The national stockpile of nitrile gloves fell from 16.9 million in December 2019 to just 2 million in October 2020, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report to Congress in November of that year.

When Badsey agreed to sales contracts, he told the companies that the gloves were being stored in a warehouse in Los Angeles, and they had to pay deposits of more than $1 million. Badsey told them to wire the money to accounts controlled by himself, his business in Irvine called First Defense International Security Services Corp. or a co-conspirators, according to prosecutors.

In total, the companies wired $3,231,990 for the gloves. But the gloves Badsey was claiming to sell didn't even exist.

"In fact, Badsey did not have any gloves stored in any warehouse," reads a statement issued Friday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

In a sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors wrote that he "used the deposit money to make expensive purchases, all while stringing would-be purchasers along with false stories, including absurd claims that government agents were blocking access to his warehouse of gloves." 

In April 2023, he pleaded guilty to four federal charges of wire fraud.

In addition to the prison sentence and restitution, Badsey has forfeited all title and interest in possessions he has purchased with the money made from the glove fraud — a yacht, a pontoon boat, $58,923 in cash, two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, an RV, two Ford pickup trucks, three ATVs, a tractor and some fishing equipment, according to prosecutors.