Allen Dean Gordon Clayborn, Wire Fraud, Michigan 2016

Allen Dean Gordon Clayborn, 35, and Raul Mejia Pereida, 47, are going to prison for masterminding a brazen wire fraud and identity theft scheme that ripped off two LGBT charities for $130,000 by falsely promising Mariah Carey would headline benefit concerts. The con, which spanned Michigan and Arizona in 2015 and 2016, left one organization — the Lesbian and Gay Community Network of Western Michigan — out $100,000 and teetering on financial collapse.

Pereida was sentenced to 27 months in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo by Judge Paul L. Maloney, who slammed the scam as a calculated betrayal of vulnerable community groups. Once Pereida, an undocumented citizen of Mexico, completes his sentence, he will be deported. Clayborn, the ringleader, received a stiffer 60-month sentence on April 26. Both men were ordered to repay the full $130,000 stolen through the fraud.

The scam was slick, complete with forged contracts, phony email accounts in the name of Mariah Carey’s road manager, and even all-expenses-paid trips to New York City and Las Vegas, where charity organizers were shown live performances — just not by Mariah Carey. The defendants used aliases and staged entire productions to sell the illusion they had access to the superstar. Complimentary tickets were altered to look like gifts from Carey, deepening the deception.

The Grand Rapids-based Lesbian and Gay Community Network had planned an outdoor concert at Calder Plaza on June 16, 2016, expecting Carey to draw massive crowds and media attention. Instead, the event never happened. The second victim, a similar nonprofit in Flagstaff, Arizona, also wired funds for a concert that was nothing but smoke and mirrors. No portion of the money went to at-risk youth — it was funneled into the defendants’ pockets.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge condemned the fraud, stating, “This scam did significant financial damage to two charities, which means all those who otherwise would have benefited from the charities suffered. The defendants succeeded in their swindle because these charities were anxious to have the money to do good things for their communities. Clayborn and Pereida deserved their punishment.”

“Clayborn and Pereida are nothing more than con artists and thieves who – out of pure greed – compromised the availability of vital social and community services to the residents of Western Michigan and Arizona,” said Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Timothy Slater of the FBI. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy VerHey. The verdict sends a clear message: fake star power won’t shield real criminals from federal time.

Related Federal Cases