He claimed to plug oil spill — and to fix their Hummers; Now he's charged with theft
[left]By Jessica Fleming
jfleming@pioneerpress.com[/left][left]Updated: 01/21/2011 09:59:15 AM CST[/left][left] It wasn't just the media who fell for his apparent scams.
A Detroit Lakes, Minn., man who fabricated a story last summer that he had invented the cap that fixed the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is facing three unrelated felony theft charges.
Blake Mastin, aka Blake A. Sundvor, allegedly took money and truck parts from at least six victims who were promised that Mastin would repair or rebuild their Hummer H-1 sport utility vehicles.
Detroit Lakes police arrested Mastin, 28, on Thursday afternoon, and a judge set bail at $100,000. If convicted, Mastin would face a maximum of 35 years in prison and $130,000 in fines.
According to a complaint filed Thursday in Becker County District Court, Mastin used forums for Hummer owners
[left][left][left]Blake Mastin. (Photo from Blake Mastin's myspace page)[/left][left]
[/left][/left][/left]to lure victims. He claimed he had a shop in Detroit Lakes and could convert their vehicles to use diesel fuel to make them more efficient. He also promised to do other work or to sell parts, which were not delivered.Blair Outlan of Memphis, Tenn., met Mastin in 2007 and said he thinks he's one of the first victims of Mastin's Hummer scam. His complaint, though on file with the Detroit Lakes Police Department, was not one of the incidents for which Mastin was charged.
Outlan said he invested in Mastin, who promised he could perform diesel conversions of Hummers for $15,000 each. Outlan said a typical conversion costs $50,000.
He shipped parts and money to Mastin but received nothing in return, he said.
"I wanted to believe it," Outlan said. "I was emotionally involved, and I wanted to see it happen. I ignored some of the facts and didn't do enough ground research on him before I got into it. He spewed just enough crap to be believable."
When he realized he was likely being scammed, Outlan said, he drove to Minnesota to retrieve parts and try to get his money back. He retrieved what he could but said he's still out nearly $30,000.
He and other alleged victims, many of whom communicate with each other on Hummer forums, decided there was no point in suing Mastin to obtain money he likely no longer had.
"Most of us have just written off our losses," Outlan said.
In July, several local news outlets, including KARE-TV and KSTP-TV, reported that Mastin had invented the cap that eventually plugged the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But the Pioneer Press found that BP had not bought the device from Mastin.
Though it was unclear what Mastin hoped to gain with the July claim, several victims thought he might use the stories, in which he said he would make hundreds of millions of dollars, to persuade people to invest in him or allow him to buy large-ticket items on credit.
Mastin's criminal record includes two felony convictions from 2005 — one for theft and one for issuing a dishonored check. He also was convicted of gross misdemeanor theft in 2003.
Other crimes in his background include dishonored checks and a domestic assault.
Victims of the Hummer scam, according to court documents, came from across the country and in Canada.
In a 2008 case, the charges state, a California man said Mastin promised to convert his Hummer's engine and perform other work on the truck. Mastin mailed him a contract, which he signed. The victim shipped his truck to Detroit Lakes and transferred $13,000 to Mastin's bank account as a deposit for the work.
Court documents say the Californian flew to Detroit Lakes two months later when Mastin hadn't returned the Hummer. Mastin convinced him that it would be done in two weeks, and the victim returned home.
After two more months, Mastin shipped the Hummer to the victim in California, according to the charges, but none of the promised work had been performed. The man was not home when the truck was delivered, but he had left a cashier's check for $7,500, the agreed upon amount for the remainder for the work, with a neighbor. The neighbor handed the delivery driver the check.
In another instance, the charges say, a Montana man sent $9,000 to Mastin for vehicle parts he did not receive. When the victim tried to reclaim his money or parts, Mastin gave the victim a check for $7,800 and a part later discovered to be unusable. But Mastin almost immediately stopped payment on the check.
Outlan said his experiences with Mastin have made him more cautious in his business dealings.
"When I'm entering into something these days, I'm looking into it more," he said.
Hummer owners, Outlan said, are a tight-knit group who are appalled by the ease with which Mastin took their money.
"People who own these things have some disposable income to play around with this toy," Outlan said. "They're easy targets."
Jessica Fleming can be reached at 651-228-5435.
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Last edited by dwaxman1 on Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Here is more on this topic as it hits home to us...BTW I have checked for this guy and he is not on our forum....
Published January 21 2011
DL man faces charges of auto swindle
A Detroit Lakes man has been charged in Becker County District Court with three felony counts of theft by swindle. Blake Andrew Sundvor, 28, of 28253 Mountain Rd., Detroit Lakes, was released Friday on $20,000 bond, pending his next appearance at a Feb. 22 omnibus hearing.By: DL Newspapers staff report, DL-Online
Blake Andrew Sundvor, 28, of 28253 Mountain Rd., Detroit Lakes, was released Friday on $20,000 bond, pending his next appearance at a Feb. 22 omnibus hearing.
Sundvor is accused of falsely contracting with individuals in California, Ohio, Montana and Michigan; as well as Alberta and British Columbia in Canada, for the sale of products and/or services on which he never delivered. The total value of the services/products identified in the complaint was approximately $45,000.
According to the criminal complaint, Sundvor allegedly contracted with a California man via the Internet to perform a duramax conversion and other mechanical work on a 1993 H-1 Hummer in September 2008. The complainant, identified as R.J., said Sundvor was paid in excess of $$20,500 for the work, yet according to an independent mechanic who evaluated the vehicle in February 2009, it would require approximately $10,000 in repairs just to bring it back to its original condition.
Another complainant from Ohio, identified as C.W., alleged that on July 1, 2009, he had paid $3,253 via eBay for a complete interior of an H-1 Hummer that was never delivered; the account to which the money was paid was registered to Sundvor.
On March 23, 2010, another complainant from Alberta, identified as J.F., said that he had contacted Sundvor via the “HummerXForum” website regarding the purchase of an engine for his 1993 H-1 Hummer. He towed the vehicle to Sundvor’s residence in Detroit Lakes in August 2009, after allegedly reaching an agreement with Sundvor to do the work for $5,000. While there, J.F. agreed to purchase more parts for the vehicle, for a total parts order of around $12,000. He left his vehicle and a $5,500 deposit with Sundvor while he and his family were on vacation, for about five weeks.
Sundvor allegedly agreed to have all the work done and parts installed or available by the end of September 2009. Two weeks later, Sundvor informed J.F. that he had spent the deposit money and could not afford to purchase a new engine for the vehicle. J.F. agreed to purchase a new engine and have it shipped to Sundvor’s residence, which he did. He returned to Detroit Lakes on Oct. 8, 2009 to find that a fraction of the work promised had been performed, and the new engine was still sitting there in its original plastic wrap.
J.F. agreed to stay with Sundvor to help him do the work, and paid another $$15,000 for parts that were never installed, “under duress of defendant’s threats of a mechanic’s lien, in order to leave peacefully with the vehicle.” Upon returning to Canada, J.F. had the vehicle inspected, and found that some of the parts supposedly replaced had never been changed, but instead were simply painted over. The professional who inspected the vehicle said the vehicle modifications “were either not performed or performed so poorly that they had to be redone, and that there was absolutely no value (to the vehicle) for the money J.f. paid defendant.”
Another complainant, R.V. from Montana, said he had paid $9,000 to Sundvor to purchase certain parts, on the promise that he would get advertising for his diesel business in Diesel Power magazine if he did so. The complainant never received the promised parts, but agreed to drive his vehicle to Sundvor’s Detroit Lakes residence, so Sundvor could install the parts for free.
After doing so, R.V. realized Sundvor did not have the capabilities he claimed to have, and also talked with J.F. about how Sundvor had not followed through on promises and/or made excuses for why the work wasn’t done.
R.V. took a $7,800 check and a 12-valve head from Sundvor in lieu of the parts promised; payment on the check was later stopped, and the part was a “cut off, used head without valves.”
Another complainant, D.R. from Michigan, also claimed that he had wired $5,000 to Sundvor on Jan. 21, 2010, for the purchase of parts that were never received.
Yet another complainant, B.C. of British Columbia, also said he had wired $2,870 to Sundvor on Dec. 2, 2009 for the purchase of new vehicle parts for his diesel conversion business. The parts never arrived.
Sundvor, who also goes by the name Blake Mastin, was briefly famous last year for claiming that he invented the cap to plug the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A BP spokesman denied the claim, saying the capping system used in the oil spill was not based on Sundvor’s design.
Sundvor has a long criminal record, and allegedly “has a history of telling tales and duping business partners,” according to a July 2010 story that appeared in the Detroit Lakes Tribune.
[left]Blake Mastin. (Photo from Blake Mastin's myspace page)[/left][left]