Donald Bren, chairman of Newport Beach’s Irvine Company and Orange County’s wealthiest resident, was the recent victim of a brazen, million-dollar identity and bank fraud case that’s yet to be resolved.
Earlier this year, an unidentified man stole Bren’s $1.4 million federal tax refund check, set up a series of bank accounts under Bren’s name and then withdrew nearly $1.1 million before authorities got wind of the scam.
“Mr. Bren was the victim,” a representative of the Secret Service’s Los Angeles bureau told the Business Journal.
The representative declined to comment beyond that in the ongoing case.
According to a court document, money in the fraudulent accounts was transferred to three people, in roughly equal amounts totaling a little more than $200,000, from Feb. 26 to March 11.
About $250,000 of the money was left by the time federal officials seized the accounts in June, as indicated in a legal notice filed with the Wall Street Journal.
Federal investigators have bank surveillance photos of the suspect—a 40-something man who looks nothing like Bren—and the names of three people who were transferred money in February and March.
No arrests appear to have been made in the case so far.
Special agents with the Internal Revenue Service and the Secret Service, as well as bank fraud investigators, are working on the case.
Officials for Pasadena-based East West Bank, where the fraudulent accounts were set up, said the matter still is under investigation.
Bren, whose Irvine Co. is a big customer of East West Bank, is not on the hook for any losses related to the fraud, according to bank officials.
Sources not involved in the case said East West Bank or its insurance company likely will take the losses, even if bank employees followed proper procedures dealing with the suspect.
An Irvine Co. spokeswoman declined to comment, calling it a personal matter for Bren.
The refund check was the result of overpayment of estimated quarterly taxes by Bren.
In May, a federal criminal complaint was filed in the Los Angeles branch of U.S. District Court against the unknown suspect.
The suspect is referred to in the complaint as FNU (for first name unknown) and LNU (for last name unknown), “A.K.A. ‘Donald Bren.’”
The account of the crime, as described in the complaint by a Secret Service agent, contains its share of criminal intrigue, sprinkled with aspects of farce.
A person purporting to be Bren went to the Cerritos branch of East West Bank in mid-February with an IRS check made out to Bren.
When and how the man managed to get the check isn’t stated in the complaint.
Bren keeps a low public profile, which could have helped the suspect pass himself off as the Irvine Co. chairman without raising suspicions at the bank.
The suspect allegedly set up four accounts using Bren’s name and a Beverly Hills address. A fifth account was set up in early April.
A fake driver’s license used at the time the accounts were set up listed Bren’s age as 40.
The real Bren is 78, lean and has a full head of hair, while bank surveillance photos show the alleged suspect to be bald and slightly pudgy.
Another identification card allegedly used by the suspect listed the fake Bren’s occupation merely as “smoke shop.”
