We hold a special contempt for con-artists who get rich – or try to – by taking advantage of the dreams of gullible people. They don’t rank high on a list of local criminals that includes rapists, drug dealers and murderers, but they deserve their beds in the state prison.
One such scammer, James Muniz, will spend the next 2 ½ to five years for stealing $236,000 from more than 100 clients through his company New Faces Development. Center Inc. Muniz, a former Roslyn resident, was sentenced last week by Nassau County Court Judge William Donnino.
Muniz convinced parents that he could get their kids lucrative modeling contracts or make them the next child star. He couldn’t. Everything he promised was a lie. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said Muniz and his accomplices “turned the hopes and dreams of parents for a better life for their children into a money-making enterprise based entirely on taking advantage of others for a quick buck.”
We applaud Rice’s economic and consumer fraud bureaus for their work in taking this creep down.
Sadly there is no shortage of con-artists ready to take his place.
We hope that Nassau County residents will learn from this to be skeptical and use due diligence before turning over their hard-earned money.
