Michael Davenport, the bassist for pop-punk group the Ataris from 1995 to 2004, has been indicted in a real estate / telemarketing scam that is said to have defrauded roughly 100,000 people out of approximately $27 million dollars during the period between 2009 and 2016.Davenport, 49, was charged alongside his alleged co-conspirator, Cynthia Rawlinson, 51, with five counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and one count of mail fraud. The Santa Barbara, California, residents face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
In an ongoing investigation headed by the St. Louis Field Office of the Chicago Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service — a bafflingly named bureaucratic entity that is located in St. Louis, apparently — investigators allege that Davenport and his accomplice operated a Santa Barbara-based telemarketing business that went by various names, but most often by "American Standard," which is also the name of a well-known company that makes toilets (might have been a clue for more savvy would-be rubes).
As first reported by the Santa Barbara Independent, the company took out ads on Craigslist for what they termed "pre-foreclosure" homes available at below-market prices. People who responded to the ads would then be told they had to pay a fee of $199 to see the full information on any property.…