The ultimate con artist

Fred Gomez, a.k.a Fred Brito, was a conman walking a tightrope, trying to hide his past in plain sight as a fundraiser for the Red Cross in the days just after hurricane Katrina.

Fluent in Spanish, Fred appeared on NBC’s Spanish-language network Telemundo to talk about the Katrina relief efforts.

Fred also participated in the production of this public-service announcement, featuring actor Rob Schneider. In a behind-the-scenes video, you can see Fred at work—giving Schneider a tour of the Red Cross facility. Fred was playing his part perfectly.

In the same piece of tape, you can see Dereck Andrade, at the time the Director of Public Affairs for the Pasadena Red Cross. And right about this time is when Andrade began to see through Fred’s shiny resume.

Derek Andrade: He did not even know how to facilitate a fundraising event. He had no concept whatsoever. And I knew right then something was wrong.

Josh Mankiewicz, Dateline correspondent: Because a guy with his qualifications should have known how to put on a fundraiser?

Andrade: He should have been able to do it in his sleep.

But, if you ask Fred, he’ll tell you he not only did that job, he aced it.

Brito: I raised more money than probably any other development person did, thanks to Katrina.  obviously, we raised a lot of money. It wasn’t really just Fred Brito.

Once again, there are no charges that Fred stole or embezzled any money while at the Red Cross, just that in his job, he was flying blind.

Mankiewicz: He says you had absolutely no idea how to put together a fund raiser.

Brito: It goes back to Derek Andrade wanting to be the star.  And he’ll step on anybody he can to make sure he is the star.  But I know what I did.

Andrade contends that he also knew what Fred did and because of that decided to look into Fred’s background a little more carefully.

Andrade: I did a Google search and up pops his picture, slowly downloading (laughs) with him smiling with a UCLA baseball cap on.  Here’ s this Los Angeles Times story talking about this imposter, this felon. And I couldn’t believe it.

It was a front page spread on the life of Fred Brito, the con man, published just 10 days after Fred began his new job with the Red Cross.

It’s a newspaper widely read in Pasadena, an LA suburb. Could Fred’s bosses have somehow missed it?  We tried to contact Fred’s supervisor at the time, but she no longer works at the Red Cross and actually more than half of the staff that worked with Brito isn’t there either.

Andrade: Did I ever dream that this man was a felon and had pulled stunts like this at other places of employment?  No. I never, ever would have dreamt that. I’m just absolutely shocked and speechless.

In the wake of that discovery, Fred was dismissed, but so was Dereck Andrade for allegedly leaking word of Fred’s scam at the Red Cross to the media.  At the time, Andrade’s boss told her staff not to talk about Fred to reporters. Andrade denies he was the leak.

Andrade: I’ve had people within the community of Pasadena who won’t even return my phone calls or emails because somehow they think that I snitched out this man and placed the Red Cross in a negative light.  And that’s not even true.  So it’s very hurtful. 

So how much can a lie hurt? Ask Maria and Gene Doten, whose marriage started with one huge lie. Or ask Dereck Andrade, who wishes he’d never met Fred Brito.

Andrade: I just can’t imagine what this man thinks.  that he just haphazardly goes through life—going into companies, businesses, wreaking havoc and thinking that it’s all fun and games. This man is just out of control.  As I’m concerned, Fred Brito is a monster. He’s an absolute monster.

But Fred now says he’s once again ready to change. Is that true? He was about to try to con us.

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