A former Roslyn resident who pleaded guilty in May to running a child modeling agency that scammed thousands from clients by falsely promising work was sentenced on Friday to up to five years in prison, prosecutors said.
James Muniz, 45, will serve between 2 ½ and five years, Nassau County Court Judge William Donnino ruled, for scamming approximately $236,000 from more than 100 clients through his company, New Faces Development Center, Inc.
Muniz, who prosecutors said also had an address in Smithtown, pleaded guilty in May to two felony counts of third-degree grand larceny and one felony count of scheme to defraud.
“With one broken promise after another, James 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,” Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement. “It is my hope that with this sentence, these families will receive solace knowing that the man who deflated those hopes will be spending significant time behind bars.”
Muniz and four others were charged in September 2013 and later indicted in December at the conclusion of a joint investigation from Rice’s economic and consumer fraud bureaus and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which received complaints from more than 100 New Faces Development Center clients who said they paid the agency up to $5,100 for its services.
Muniz was also sentenced in May as part of an unrelated case to six months in prison for violating a protection order for his ex-wife in 2011.
“James Muniz used his business to prey upon proud, loving New York parents, even after the company was prosecuted civilly for committing similar offenses years earlier,” Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said. “His sentence sends the message that those who take advantage of unsuspecting New Yorkers will be held accountable. My office will continue working diligently to prosecute fraud, and seek restitution for those who have been victimized.”
Upon the announcement of charges against him, Muniz fled New York to live with family in Florida but was later extradited by law enforcement officials, prosecutors said.
Associates from New Faces Development Center Inc. – also known as Model Talent Development Corp. – told clients at shopping malls in Queens and Long Island that they had a “look” which suggested they would be successful in the entertainment industry, prosecutors said.
But Rice and Schneiderman’s investigation found that those scouted by the two companies were pressured into repeatedly paying up to $3,000 for the agency’s services and rarely, if ever, secured employment through the agency.
Prosecutors said New Faces Development Center Inc. exaggerated its connections to the entertainment industry and rarely found employment for their clients, though it provided photographs and exposure on the website Gigacomps.com for an additional fee. Months would then pass without clients receiving a phone call from the agency.
Many clients were told their children had received multi-year contracts with retailers like Macy’s, Toys R’ Us, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, the Children’s Place, Target and J.C. Penny but would lose those opportunities to other aspiring child stars if they did not enter into additional agreements with the agency, prosecutors said.
