Former Santa Ana Boat Builder Founders on 12 Charges of Grand Theft

A Southern California ski-boat builder whose company folded late last year has been arrested on charges that he took $137,000 from customers without delivering the custom-built craft they had ordered.

Robert Rodman Bahner, 35, of Orange, was arrested Monday at his new boat manufacturing business in Corona on 12 counts of grand theft and six counts of filing false vehicle title applications with the state. All of the charges are felonies.

Bahner, who operates a boat manufacturing and retailing business in Corona under the name Bravo One Boats, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

His attorney, Allan H. Stokke, said he is still examining the complaint but added that one of the customers recently received the boat he had ordered and that Bahner “is about to deliver” a boat to a second customer.

“He wants to make good to them,” Stokke said.

He characterized Bahner’s problem as “primarily one of cash flow” and said the case “is only a half-step away from what usually is civil litigation.”

Bahner, who operated Bahner Custom Boats in Santa Ana from 1978 until filing for bankruptcy in August, 1987, is accused of taking $110,000 cash and three trade-in boats valued at a total of $26,880 as advance payments from 11 customers last year, said Randy King, special investigator for the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The complaint issued by the major-fraud division of the county district attorney’s office was based on King’s investigation. Because boats are licensed and registered like autos, the DMV has jurisdiction over boat dealers’ sales practices.

In the complaint, King alleged that Bahner began siphoning money last year from what had been a solvent business to pay for an expensive addition to his home in Orange. The investigator also said he found three subcontractors who were given Bahner boats in lieu of cash for their work.

King, who began working the case after a customer filed a complaint with the DMV in November, said Bahner persuaded the customers to apply for bank loans for the boats they had ordered and then to give him the bank drafts for the full purchase price before taking delivery of their boats. The boats cost $18,000 to $20,000.

In six cases, King said, Bahner filed title applications with the DMV to cash the bank drafts, even though the boats for which he was obtaining title did not exist.

The transactions, King said, occurred from February to August last year. He said Bahner shut down his business and filed for reorganization and protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code in August. He filed for complete liquidation, or Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in November.

Both the bankruptcy cases, however, were dismissed after Bahner failed to file all of the required financial reports, King said.

The DMV investigator alleged in his complaint that Bahner used the bankruptcy filings merely as a device to frustrate creditors, including the 11 customers who paid for boats they never received.