Bogus Connections to the Red Hot Chili Peppers

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White sentenced Quincy Krashna to a 24-month prison sentence for his role in a concert promoting opportunity gone completely awry. Further, he ordered Krashna to pay $450,000 in restitution to the European concert promoters.

Krashna, 50, of Albany, California, pleaded guilty on March 6. Per the plea agreement, Krashna admitted to highly exaggerating claims of connections to the band Red Hot Chili Peppers to an Eastern European concert promoter.

From the outset, the concert promoters were interested in promoting Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts in Eastern Europe. After sealing the deal with the concert promoters, Krashna admitted that he requested and secured a down payment of $450,000. The payment was to be held in an escrow account, in order to secure the band’s services. If the band was unavailable, the bank would then return the money to the promoters, according to the agreement.

In the plea agreement, Krashna admitted to creating a fraudulent escrow agreement. In an attempt to legitimize his scam, Krashna used an escrow document that had a striking resemblance to an agreement used by Chase Bank.

However, Krashna did not ever setup or use an escrow account. In fact, he used a personal bank account. After receiving Krashna’s assurances, the concert promoters eventually wired $450,000 into the fake escrow account.

Fake Escrow Account and Wire Fraud

Krashna admitted in his plea agreement that he continued to inform the concert promoters their money was in a Chase Bank escrow account. By this time, Krashna had transferred the money out of his personal account and into other accounts that he controlled. Krashna admitted that he continued to misrepresent the whereabouts of the victims’ money until March 2012.

A federal grand jury indicted Krashna on January 12, 2017 and charged him with seven counts of wire fraud. Krashna pleaded guilty to one count, and the remaining counts were dismissed.

In addition to the prison term and restitution, White ordered the defendant to serve a three-year term of supervised release to follow his prison term. Krashna starts serving his prison sentence on November 6.