Couple Held in Operation of Fake Charity

A Duarte couple are being held on 77 felony charges of operating what authorities say was a sham children’s charity that bilked pop singer Michael Jackson, major corporations and individual contributors of hundreds of thousands of dollars over six years.

Gary Gene Harder, 55, and Grace Darlene Brandt, 56, were being held on $1.4-million bail each at Twin Towers jail Thursday. It’s a far cry from the luxurious Duarte home, complete with swimming pool and spa, where they operated their charity, authorities say.

“They bilked everyone, from the working class to major corporations, and they lived very well off the money,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Albert MacKenzie. “Only a few dollars went to help children.”

The couple, authorities alleged, collected several hundred thousand dollars in cash and auction items annually by representing themselves as a charity under various names. Among the donations was a German-made life-size cow and calf donated by Michael Jackson, worth potentially more than $50,000, which the couple tried to auction online. They face attempted grand theft charges in relation to the two stuffed animal toys.

That count and 76 others were filed Tuesday in Pasadena Superior Court. In 65 pages of charges, prosecutors allege that the couple spent only a few hundred dollars a year on children’s events and kept the rest for themselves.

“They spent 150 bucks on an occasional puppet show and put the rest in their own pockets,” MacKenzie said.

Charges include grand theft, criminal conspiracy, perjury, failure to file income tax returns, filing false financial statements, defrauding an innkeeper and insurance fraud. Although the counts relate to the last six years, authorities say consumer complaints go back to 1977.

Attorneys for the couple did not return calls Thursday seeking comment. The couple’s arraignment is scheduled June 2.

The district attorney’s office has spoken to about 100 alleged victims but has compiled a list of about 5,000 donors, individuals and corporations, who may have been bilked, MacKenzie said. “There are literally thousands of victims, but we cannot bring them all to court,” he said.

The couple allegedly used various names for their charity, including Universal Love for Children, Children’s Show, the Good Samaritan Club and Friends of Children, court records show. They also used numerous aliases, according to MacKenzie. Brandt called herself Dr. Grace Hillman, Sister Darlene Biglione and Vaudine Norman.

According to law enforcement sources, the real Vaudine Norman died in 1960 of a gunshot wound. The couple also had as many as 200 credit cards in various names, officials said.

Authorities said they told contributors to their charities that the cash and items donated would be used to provide clothing, entertainment and other items to disabled and underprivileged children.

But MacKenzie said the money ended up in 53 separate bank accounts that allegedly helped pay for cars and other parts of the couple’s lifestyle.

According to brochures their charity distributed, no money was spent on employee salaries because the organization relied entirely on volunteers.

MacKenzie said the couple even continued to scam donors after the district attorney’s office served a search warrant on their home March 24, seizing 37 boxes of records.

He said that on April 20, Harder met with officials from a Burbank hospital after Brandt asked them to donate $2,500 because the charity’s headquarters had been burglarized. District attorney’s investigator Tom Tomka recorded the meeting on tape, MacKenzie said.

MacKenzie said it was Tomka who uncovered the alleged scheme while investigating a tip that Brandt had a driver’s license and California identity card under different names.

Among the alleged victims of the scheme were major luxury hotels such as the Regent Beverly Wilshire, the Irvine Spectrum Marriott, the Four Seasons Hotel Newport Beach and the Four Seasons Biltmore.

The couple solicited free rooms they said would be sold at charity auctions, then showed up at the hotels under assumed names to use the rooms, MacKenzie said. “They even took their [1998] honeymoon using this scheme,” he said.

Another alleged victim, SwissAir, gave them free tickets to Europe for the charity. MacKenzie said the couple used aliases and took the trip, pretending to be the auction winners. “The more big names who became donors, the easier it got for them,” MacKenzie said.

He said he expects to file additional charges at some point. “The number of victims just continues to mushroom,” he said.