Amazon Exec Defrauded by Fake Tom Petty Booking Agent

It’s one thing when the wedding singer doesn’t show up. It’s another thing altogether when the wedding singer is Tom Petty, and he didn’t even know about the gig. Brian Valentine, senior vice president for Amazon.com’s e-commerce platform, mistakenly believed he booked Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for his Seattle wedding. In reality, he’d wired a $165,000 deposit to alleged Las Vegas fraudster Chad Christopher Lund, who was posing as a booking agent, according to the FBI.

Federal agents found Lund in southern Illinois and arrested him on Aug. 2. He remains detained there and is pending transfer by U.S. Marshal to the Western District of Washington, according to Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the district’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. No attorney is listed yet for Lund. The maximum penalty for wire fraud is up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.