LOS ANGELES – A former UCLA decathlete who also competed with the Philippines national team was arrested this morning on a federal criminal complaint alleging that he fraudulently raised more than $37 million from investors who were told their funds would be used to finance companies marketing cannabis vape pens.
David Joseph Bunevacz, 53, of Calabasas, was taken into custody this morning pursuant to a complaint filed on March 30 that charges him with one count of wire fraud. Bunevacz is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Bunevacz solicited investments in various businesses – “CB Holding Group Corp.” and “CaesarBrutus LLC,” among others – which he claimed were involved in the sale of vape pens containing cannabis products such as CBD oil and THC. Bunevacz falsely told at least one investor he had a long-standing relationship with a Chinese manufacturer of disposable vape pens and he obtained “raw pesticide-free oil” that was sent to a “lab that infuses the flavors into the oil with our proprietary custom process that renders the vape flavoring smooth and discrete,” the complaint alleges. Bunevacz allegedly also provided investors with forged documents – such as bank statements, invoices and purchase orders – to support his claims of the businesses’ success and the need…
