Santee Couple Faces Mail Fraud Charges

Federal authorities Friday arrested a Santee man they say bilked $75,000 from people who paid $5 or $10 for information on low-interest loans from the suspect and his wife.

Instead, officials said, people who answered newspaper advertisements by sending the fee for more information on the “low-interest loans” were referred to an unwitting New York pawnshop.

Tena Gay Boeckman, 24, who was arrested Wednesday, and Brian Boeckman, 29, her husband, face charges on 29 counts of mail fraud and 1 count of conspiracy. Tena Gay Boeckman was released Friday from the Metropolitan Correctional Center on a $100,000 bail. Brian Boeckman, who was in Canada when his wife was arrested, surrendered to authorities at her bail hearing and is being held at Metropolitan Correctional without bail.

They are also are charged with failing to pay for $35,000 in classified ads and of running a rent-skimming scheme that netted an undisclosed sum.

Eugene Iredale, the attorney for Tena Gay Boeckman, said his client’s reputation has been damaged by the “inaccurate charges” and “grossly inflated figures” disclosed by federal authorities.

U.S. postal inspectors who investigated the couple said the Boeckmans published ads in newspapers from February, 1984, to April, 1987, offering information on low-interest loans. The ads allegedly said that the loans were competitive with those offered by banks or savings and loans associations.

People responding to the ad were asked to mail a $5 or $10 fee with their request for information. In return, they received a one-page brochure referring them to a pawnbroker in New York City. The pawnbroker, however, was unaware of the ads and did not know the Boeckmans, investigators said.

The ads appeared in newspapers ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, according to the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Steve Crandall. The indictment said fraudulent ads also were placed in Long Beach; Phoenix; Cheyenne, Wyo., and Bismarck, N.D., he said.

Crandall said the couple operated under such names as Best Credit Services, Southwest Consumer Credit, C.D.C. Service, and World Credit but that the businesses were no more than post office boxes and mail drops in San Diego and Santee.

The Boeckmans also were charged with operating a business that offered to assist homeowners who were behind on their house payments. The customers were duped into sending payments to the Boeckmans, who promised to turn over the payments but did not, Crandall said.

Iredale said charges involving the low-interest loans were exaggerated because the business only involved the mailing of $10 checks.

Iredale said charges against the Boeckmans have been damaging and “are enough to besmirch a person’s name and subject them to humiliation before their friends and family.”

The Boeckmans, he said, have two children, 7 and 4.