SAN DIEGO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a civil lawsuit Thursday alleging fraud and other financial misconduct by six San Diego County residents who allegedly took part in a $3.8 million scheme that involved pocketing charitable funds that were earned by selling concessions at Petco Park and Snapdragon Stadium.

The two lead defendants named in the civil case, Noly Hermoso Ilarde and Martin Jose Rebollo Jr., recently pleaded guilty to criminal charges in San Diego federal court, admitting that they ran a fake charity to carry out the fraud scheme and personally took more than $2 million in funds derived from it.

The new lawsuit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, alleges that four other individuals, including Ilarde’s wife and sister, also took part in the scheme by posing as unpaid volunteers when in reality they received tens of thousands of dollars from the alleged charity scam.

Court records in the federal criminal case and Bonta’s civil suit alleged the scam began as early as 2014 and ended in August 2023, shortly after Voice of San Diego first exposed the scheme publicly in a series of stories. The civil suit alleges that after Voice of San Diego began reporting its first story and contacted various parties involved in the scheme, Rebollo tried to scramble and register two new charities with state officials in an attempt to disguise the alleged fraud.

“Charity is supposed to showcase the best parts of our humanity, but unfortunately, these actions showcase some of the worst,” Bonta said in a statement. “We are holding these individuals accountable for their malicious and reprehensible conduct. Today’s announcement should serve as a reminder: Those who try to steal funds intended for charity will only become rich in consequences.”

An attorney retained by Rebollo in the federal criminal case did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Thursday, and it was not immediately clear if that attorney would represent Rebollo in the civil case. It was not immediately known if the other defendants had attorneys who could comment.

Rebollo, a 58-year-old Chula Vista resident, pleaded guilty in December in San Diego federal court to one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of filing a false tax return and one count related to Social Security fraud. He admitted in his plea agreement that he pocketed more than $1.5 million as part of the fake charity conspiracy.

Ilarde, a 57-year-old San Diego man, pleaded guilty March 11 to one count of wire fraud conspiracy, admitting in his plea agreement that he personally pocketed at least $550,000 in the charity scheme.

The allegations in the new civil suit are nearly identical to those laid out by federal prosecutors in the criminal case, with some additional details about the alleged scheme.

According to allegations from both cases, Rebollo and Ilarde allegedly registered a charity in 2014 under the name Chula Vista Fast Patch, though they held themselves out publicly as the leaders of a nonprofit called Chula Vista Fast Pitch, which purported to support Chula Vista softball programs. While Chula Vista Fast Pitch was at one point a legitimate charity operated by other individuals, it had shut down by 2014.

Around that same time, Rebollo and Ilarde sought and were chosen to take part in a program at Petco Park that allows nonprofits to provide unpaid volunteers to staff concessions stands in return for about 10% of each stand’s revenue. The program is operated by Delaware North, the hospitality management company in charge of concessions at Petco Park. According to the civil suit, nonprofits that typically take part in the program include youth sports teams, cheer teams and church groups.

That slice of revenue earned by the volunteers is supposed to go directly to the charity, while the volunteers and leaders of the nonprofits are not supposed to be paid. The civil suit alleges that Rebollo signed agreements acknowledging those conditions, but that he and Ilarde paid each supposed volunteer between $50 and $120 per event and then pocketed the rest of the money.

According to the lawsuit, the duo’s fake charity steadily increased its presence at Petco Park over nearly a decade. In 2015, Chula Vista Fast Patch’s first full season at the stadium, it earned about $40,000, but in 2022 it received more than $1.3 million, according to the civil suit. By 2023, the fake charity was staffing 10 to 20 concessions stands with 50 to 100 “volunteers” during each baseball game and other events at Petco, and through August of that year had earned more than $1.4 million, the suit alleges.

“Between 2014 and 2023, Delaware North wired at least $3.6 million to bank accounts controlled by Rebollo,” the civil suit alleges.

Rebollo and Ilarde allegedly ran a similar scheme at Snapdragon Stadium between the time it opened in 2022 and the time their charity was exposed a year later, according to the lawsuit. Aztec Shops, the nonprofit in charge of concessions at Snapdragon, allegedly paid Chula Vista Fast Pitch more than $286,000.

While Rebollo admitted in his federal plea agreement to taking more than $1.5 million in funds meant for charity, the civil suit alleges he withdrew more than $2 million in cash from the sham charity’s accounts. The suit alleges he spent that money gambling at casinos, dining out and traveling, among other personal expenses.

The attorney general’s lawsuit accuses all of the defendants of conspiracy to misappropriate charitable funds and breach of charitable trust. It also accused Rebollo and Ilarde of breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, fraud and violations of the Charitable Supervision Act.

Among other remedies, the civil suit seeks more than $3.8 million in restitution and damages.

In the federal criminal case, Ilarde is scheduled to be sentenced in May, and Rebollo is set to be sentenced in June. Both face a maximum of 20 years in prison and potentially will be ordered to pay hefty fines and restitution orders.

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