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Business owner pays restitution

Emily Aughinbaugh

High Sierra Heli Skiing owner Harry Vested agreed Monday to pay $58,000 in restitution to people he was accused of defrauding.

In April, Vested was arrested in Reno for credit card fraud.

Vested agreed to pay $45,000 to Cris Converse, a Marla Bay resident who said she met Vested a year ago and was duped into investing in his heli skiing company.



Converse said the company never made a flight. However, Converse claimed Vested used her information as an investor to get a credit card under a slightly different spelling of her name and said she was a man.

Since she split paths with Vested in July, Converse said she’s found nearly 40 people who have been defrauded by him.



Vested’s attorney, John Routsis, was unavailable for comment.

Routsis handed Tahoe Township Justice Richard Glasson checks for $45,000 and $13,000. However, Glasson voiced his hesitancy about the credibility of the checks.

He also warned Converse’s attorney if she agreed to take the money Routsis could petition to have the case sealed within 30 days. Converse said she took the money at her lawyer’s insistence.

“I’m really more interested in the justice than the money,” she said, adding she hopes Vested will be spending more time in the courtroom.

“I took it knowing there’s more to come,” she said.

Converse said she’ll be in Douglas County court with Vested again Monday in Gardnerville, where she’ll seek punitive damages.

Converse said despite the legal fees and time she’s spent on the case she hopes more of Vested’s victims will come forward and people will become less naive.

“It blows me away how easy it is to get a credit card using someone else’s information,” Converse said. “I was horrified by it. He changed my identity.”


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