Man who allegedly cheated SM school being pursued by the state too
Celebrity fundraiser Aaron Tonken was charged with mail fraud Friday, following a civil lawsuit filed against him in March.
The criminal charge, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that Tonken, 37, regularly lied to donors and used charity money to buy luxury items and repay personal loans.
If convicted, Tonken faces a maximum of five years in jail.
This isn’t the first time Tonken has faced this type of charge.
In March, the state attorney accused Tonken and his associates of allegedly defrauding clients like former President Bill Clinton and other celebrities, as well as a Santa Monica private school, out of more than $1.7 million.
Friday’s federal complaint alleges that Tonken, who helped produce several charitable fundraisers featuring the casts of “The Practice” and “Ally McBeal,” collected hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on a charitable fundraiser in honor of singer Diana Ross that never took place.
According to the affidavit, Tonken allegedly regularly overstated the amount of money that had been raised, understated the cost of producing the event and promised that celebrities had agreed to appear at the events when they had not.
Tonken is scheduled to appear in court June 10 to answer the federal criminal complaint.
Among the victims named in the state’s lawsuit is the Westside Waldorf School, a private school on Fourth Street in Santa Monica.
School officials said they were forced into an economic crisis two years ago after Tonken arranged for a major donation from the Cynthia Gershman Foundation that never fully came through.
“We’re going to be looking at all the transactions to which Mr. Tonken played a part,” he said. “And all the times that he used funds for one thing that were meant for another.”
George Bird, Tonken’s lawyer, said his client was bad at keeping his records straight but never criminal in his behavior.
“He put his heart and soul into these fundraisers, never with the intent to defraud anyone,” Bird said Friday. “Aaron will want to take care of this matter and put it behind him. He will take responsibility for his actions.”
“Aaron will want to take care of this matter and put it behind him.” — — GEORGE BIRD Tonken’s attorney
Waldorf parents, teachers and administrators are unsure.
They say Tonken brought two donors to the school in January 2001 — Cynthia Gershman, a trustee of the Cynthia Gershman Foundation who signed a pledge to Waldorf for $650,000, and Loren Arbus, who agreed to put on four annual fundraisers for the school.
Waldorf then paid Tonken $25,000 for consultation services and began expansion and relocation plans for the private school, whose lease expires on July 1.
When Gershman’s first $120,000 check came through, everything seemed to be going well and officials hired more teachers and brought in an administrator at $80,000 a year to find a new home for the school and oversee its move, school officials said.
Tonken’s reliability came into question shortly thereafter when the first annual fundraiser failed to generate any revenue.
Waldorf put up $65,000 as a “good faith” deposit which Tonken was supposed to return after the event, along with any additional revenue generated by the fundraiser. But officials said Tonken lagged on returning their deposit — and vendors from the event came after the school, saying they had not been paid for their services by Tonken or Arbus.
Jeffrey Graham, former board president and co-chair of Waldorf’s finance committee, said Tonken eventually returned the school’s $65,000 by depositing money into its bank account from a third party.
But no extra revenue was ever brought in by the event, he said. And shortly after the event fell apart, Gershman withdrew her “irrevocable pledge,” sending the school into a further economic tailspin. Graham said Gershman didn’t provide any reason for the change of heart.
With the money suddenly gone, the school laid off temporary workers, cut back on services, asked vendors for grace periods and sought loans to avoid bankruptcy.
Officials estimated that recovery from the ordeal will take roughly three years for the 165-student private school, which costs about $11,000 a year to attend.
- George Bird, attorney for Tonken
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 17, 2003. Read the original PDF.