TRENTON — A company that promised hopeful parents their children would be marketed to modeling or acting companies was charged today with consumer fraud and accused of forcing parents to pay for what amounted to expensive photo shoots. More than 200 complaints have been filed against Industry Model and Talent Studios and a successor corporation, Interface 1, state Attorney...
N.J. Attorney General Paula Dow in this July 7, 2011 Star-Ledger file photo. Dow said more than 200 complaints have been filed against Industry Model and Talent Studios and a successor corporation.TRENTON — A company that promised hopeful parents their children would be marketed to modeling or acting companies was charged today with consumer fraud and accused of forcing parents to pay for what amounted to expensive photo shoots.
More than 200 complaints have been filed against Industry Model and Talent Studios and a successor corporation, Interface 1, state Attorney General Paula Dow said. A lawyer for the company's owner, Roman Vintfeld, didn't deny the 200 complaints, but said they came over six years as the company catered to its 20,000 customer base.
According to prosecutors, employees of the Edgewater-based company approached parents in malls and theme parks, inducing them to come in for a free evaluation of their children. Once there, parents were pressured to sign contracts that did not allow cancellations or refunds.
Like most parents, Claudia Cordoba thinks her son is handsome. But even she was skeptical when a teenage girl came up to her a few years ago at the Rockaway Mall and said her 13-year-old had the potential to model.
Cordoba gave out her contact information, and after relentless calls, says she agreed to bring her son in for a free consultation at Industry Model and Talent Studios in Edgewater.
Once there, she said she was pressured to sign a contract, gave them her credit card number for a photo shoot that cost $1,000, and thought it was the beginning of a potential modeling career for her child.
What the 35-year-old Rockaway resident said she didn't understand was that once she signed the contract, she couldn't cancel or reschedule the shoot. And she couldn't get her money back, even though she lost her job.
So she took her son for the photos. Afterward she learned that without paying even more money — an $800 annual membership fee — that the company refused to send her son's photos to any modeling agencies.
"They didn't explain that it was a rolling investment and I needed to make additional payments for pictures to be sent out," Cordoba told The Associated Press.
"It was devastating to him," Cordoba said of her son. "They don't understand the damage they do to people. They play with people's feelings and with their dreams."
The company owner's lawyer, Christopher Farella, said a vigorous defense is planned.
"It's really a minute percent that have made complaints, and that's going to happen in any business," Farella said. "We've provided thousands of documents that showed customers being requested by agents, casting companies and obtaining appearances and jobs as a result."
The company is facing charges of violating the Consumer Fraud Act; making false promises, misrepresentations or knowing omissions of facts; and failing to provide copies of sales contracts to consumers.
"These defendants did far more than just fail to deliver on their high-priced promises," said Thomas R. Calcagni, director of the state Division of Consumer Affairs. "By using flattery and the age-old allure of getting children into show business, they deceived consumers into spending thousands of dollars for nothing more than headshots."
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