Michael Israel, the Boca painter who whips out large-scale portraits of patriotic scenes (like the ones above) by karate-chopping his canvas, was scheduled to create a painting at the so-called Veterans Presidential Inaugural Ball in Washington on the night of Barack Obama's inauguration. But the ball got canceled at the last minute; the organizer was found to have a history of bad checks and bankruptcy filings; and Israel told the Juice he's expecting federal investigators to interview him as a victim any minute now.
Israel's remarks after the jump.
"I heard the word 'veterans', and I was like, 'Yes, I'm there!'," Israel told Juice,
describing a call he received from Darryl Dante Hayes, organizer of the ball that was supposed to honor war veterans.
The Washington Post reports that authorities have launched an
investigation of Hayes, who
runs a murky nonprofit called the Congressional Education Foundation
for Public Policy. Hayes had advertised an inaugural ball at the swanky St.
Regis Hotel, just two blocks from the White House, where diplomats and
dignitaries stay. He claimed to have corporate sponsors for the
event and said he'd invited Obama. He arranged for teenage beauty
pageant winners to fly to DC and work as greeters; they'd be reimbursed
for ball gowns and airfare, according to the report. Hayes reportedly asked some of his
volunteers to charge $64,000 worth of expenses on their credit cards,
saying they too, would be reimbursed. Hayes booked Michael Israel,
offering similar promises.
Hayes'
team failed to handle the logistics, like booking hotel rooms and
shipping the painting materials, but Israel, believing that it was a
charity cause, forgave the disorganization and paid his own expenses up
front. It wasn't until he was at the airport flying to DC that one of
Hayes' associates called him to say the event was cancelled. Isreal
proceeded with the trip because he was slated to perform at another
ball on another night (the triptych above is from that ball), but "I
lost out on two shows that I turned down because I was booked for this."
Israel
couldn't say exactly how much money he was out -- "With charity events,
[my fee] is based on how much I bring in to them [by auctioning the
painting]" -- and doubts he has any chance of recovering funds. When
asked for the names of the dozen sponsors who had supposedly backed out
at the last minute, Hayes told the Washington Post that he couldn't remember who they were -- because he'd left his list of them in in a rental car.
Michael
Israel says, "It's a shame. Dante took advantage of the veterans, and
took advantage of sponsors who were trying to good for others -- it's
like taking food out of somebody else's mouth. To me, it's worse than stealing." Israel just hopes that, with many charities in dire financial
straits, philanthropists are not scared off from donating to charities
because of scammers. "Kids are being fed, scholarships are being given,
soldiers are being helped [by other, reputable organizations]. The key
is learning how to tell them apart." But Israel is still shaking his
head at one thing: "After all this had transpired, one of [Hayes's]
assistants asked me to do some kind of an event on a cruise ship with
Dante. I was like, 'Are you kidding me?'"
