Town Toyota Center Looking To Recover $250K Paid To Fake Booking Agent

The Town Toyota Center (TTC) in Wenatchee is in the process of attempting to recover $250,000 it paid to a fraudster who reportedly posed as a booking agent for a major musical act.

In a Wednesday press release, TTC officials say the venue's longtime booking agent - Harmony Artists Inc. of Los Angeles, California - introduced them to an agent identified as James Whitting of Wasserman Music, who represents the band Imagine Dragons.

Subsequently, the TTC says it paid the funds to Whitting through a wire transfer in order to secure the group for an upcoming concert. Something the venue says is standard practice when booking entertainment acts.

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The release states that about three weeks after making the transfer, it was discovered that the person claiming to be Whitting was actually an imposter, who posed as the agent in order to steal the funds.

The TTC says it promptly contacted its booking agent, bank, and insurance provider in an effort to work with Harmony Artists to recover the lost payment.

The venue says it expects to be fully reimbursed by Harmony Artists, but did not specify any timeline for when that might happen.

Harmony Artists has been working with TTC for over 16 years to bring musical concerts to the venue, including most-recently, the country band Alabama, who performed there on Sept. 15.

In light of the incident, TTC officials say they are also reevaluating their booking protocols and are looking for ways to introduce more safeguards to those practices.

TTC went on to say they are also working with various law enforcement agencies in an effort to identify and apprehend the person or persons responsible for the theft.