Irony is, in some cases, a dish best served frothy white.
Before
being arrested for embezzling $5.1 million from a D.C. non-profit to
keep her unprofitable Upper Marlboro bridal boutique afloat, Ephonia
Green prided herself on donating ensembles to military brides. Green is
now serving a 46-month prison term, but on Wednesday two U.S. Marines
bought a couple of her wedding dresses at cut-rate prices.
The
dresses were among 2,400 items from her inventory that federal marshals
seized and the U.S. General Services Administration is selling through
the end of the week at a fraction of their retail value. If it all
sells, it will bring in $600,000 to $800,000, which will be given to the
Association of American Medical Colleges, the organization that was the
target of Green’s embezzlement. Green, the owner of Couture Miss
Bridal & Formal, was a $56,000-a-year administrative assistant at
the AAMC, which represents medical schools and teaching hospitals and
administers the MCAT, a test used in medical school admissions.
[Sentencing set for woman who stole $5 million from District-based non-profit]
The
sale, held at the Embassy Suites Baltimore Hotel at BWI airport,
included tiaras, shoes, veils, and flower girl dresses, in addition to
other formal evening wear.
Throughout the morning, a steady stream of prospective brides perused the racks.
“Today
the plan is to find the wedding dress and then hopefully the reception
dress and then after that I have some more formal events, so I’ll keep
looking,” said Sakeitha Crowder, a physician in her 30s who flew up from
her home outside Raleigh, N.C. to attend the sale. She and her aunt,
who flew in from Atlanta to meet her, are staying at a hotel across the
street for easy access.
Staff
Sgt. Sharla Shima, left, helps Sgt. Debra Mendez, right, pick out her
wedding dress. Both women are US Marines. Helping is GSA staffer Tina
Lowe, center. (Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)
They
riffled through silk, gauze, and pearly numbers, including some by
designers like Christina Wu and David Tutera. “This has a long train
that I love, and the detail is there, but the quality is not what I’m
looking for,” Crowder said, holding up a white beaded gown. “Ooh!” she
said, turning to another, “this could work for a reception dress – but I
think it’s too small.”
It is common practice for seized property to be auctioned or sold to the public.
“One
of the Department of Justice’s main initiatives is victims
compensation, so as often as we can compensate the victims of white
collar crime, we do,” said Jason Martinez, assistant program manager
with the asset forfeiture division of the U.S. Marshals Service. “Like
with Bernie Madoff, we’re still paying victims of that scheme. They’ll
never recoup the full amount, but we’re trying to make them whole as
much as possible.”
The
goods are usually less exquisite – cars, office furniture. There has
been only one other bridal sale, held in Atlanta, for wedding attire
seized in Alaska. “We tried to sell it up there, but the market wasn’t
very good,” he said. No surprise – Alaska has one of the country’s
highest male- to-female ratios.
Trying on the merchandise was not
an option, so the brides resorted to guesswork, holding up dresses,
pulling straps up over sweatshirts, imagining how well they might be set
off by bare skin.
I am really nervous
spending the money if I can’t try it on,” said Mary Stiles, 24, of Port
Tobacco, MD, looking anguished as her friends held up two dresses.
“If you go somewhere else you won’t find a dress that price,” said her mother, Susan Stiles.
“But
you have to be 100 percent sure,” said her friend Angelimar De Jesus of
Beltsville. “I’ve seen a lot of brides and they only buy if they’re 100
percent sure.”
Being sure was not a problem for Marine Staff
Sergeant Sharla Shima, 32, who drove up from Quantico early in the
morning with her friend Sergeant Debbie Mendez, 25.
“You think we get a military discount?” Mendez asked as they shopped.
“This
is the military discount,” Shima retorted.
Mendez, who plans to marry in June, had been dragging her feet on dress shopping – but Shima is no procrastinator.
“Admittedly
I just got engaged on Saturday,” she said. “One of our bosses had
mentioned that he’d heard about this on the radio and that we should
come.”
Shima had jokingly told her fiancé that she would wear her dress blues. “He said, ‘Absolutely not.’”
So, unlike women who spend weeks or months hunting for the perfect dress, she chose hers in about an hour.
She
held up a high-necked, sleeveless lace gown — $500, down from $1,113 –
and the search was over. “It was a really good deal and beautiful, and
it fit my criteria exactly,” she said. “I like to get in and out.”
Looking it over after making the purchase, she added, “Honestly, I didn’t even notice the train until I bought it.”
Source from:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/11/18/how-one-womans-5-million-embezzlement-led-to-an-epic-sale-of-designer-bridal-gowns/