Federal Agents Search Videotel Office in Irvine : Inquiry: Inspectors confirm records were seized as part of a fraud probe of Costa Mesa-based Interlink Data Network.

Federal agents searched the offices of Videotel Technologies Inc. in connection with the investigation of a videophone company that has been accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service confirmed Wednesday.

Donald Obritsch, spokesman for the Postal Inspection Service, said inspectors searched the Videotel office on Technology Drive in Irvine on Nov. 23 as part of a probe of Interlink Data Network Inc. of Los Angeles, a Costa Mesa company. Records were seized in the Videotel search, he said.

Obritsch said the Irvine start-up company was apparently run by Interlink President Michael Gartner, who along with his other companies was ordered last month by a federal judge in Los Angeles to repay $12.3 million allegedly raised fraudulently from an estimated 450 investors.

Gartner’s companies raised more than $10 million to build a videophone network to link office buildings in downtown Los Angeles. But in May, postal inspectors and other government agents searched Interlink offices in Costa Mesa and Century City, and the SEC subsequently filed a lawsuit alleging that the company was defrauding investors.

Videotel was formed during the summer as a manufacturer of videophones.

Gartner and his attorney did not return calls for comment Wednesday.