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Missing promoter leaves ball sponsors angry

The promoter who failed to hold a promised Veterans Inaugural Ball on Tuesday has left behind a trail of angry corporate sponsors and charities who contributed to the event, disappointed performers who were booked for entertainment, and 17 to 25 beauty queens who were told they would be ambassadors for their states at the ball and help raise up to $10 million for veterans’ causes.

Debbie Slater, mother of 17-year-old Miss Teen Montana Galaxy Nikki Slater, said in a Wednesday interview that her daughter had told all of her friends she was coming to Washington for the inaugural, and there even was an article about the trip in a local newspaper.

In e-mails, promoter Dante Hayes promised three or four “action-filled” days highlighted by the black-tie ball that Obama supposedly would visit because veterans were such an important cause.

“Honestly, if a veterans’ organization contacted me right now asking for my support, I wouldn’t trust them because of this experience,” Slater said, adding that her family had spent money buying gowns and tuxedos for the many events and had even made a contribution to the cause because they were such big believers.

“My daughter was made a lot of promises and she is disappointed,” Slater said. “She is taking it better than me, though. I am a concerned and protective parent who doesn’t like things like this happening to her.”

Among the fabrications Hayes used to get donations was a public relations plan he circulated about how the beauty queens, performers and sponsors would be getting attention from the news media with the help of an international communications company, Burson-Marsteller, which he claimed was retained Jan. 9 and would stay on the job through Jan. 25.

Paul Cordasco, a corporate spokesman for Burson-Marsteller, said Hayes did contact the company asking about a media plan. “We were never engaged by him or signed with him,” Cordasco said, adding that the detailed media plan being circulated by Hayes was a fabrication.

Slater, whose family is from Missoula, Mont., has been contacted by the Secret Service and FBI, which are investigating what happened to the money raised by sponsors and what happened to Hayes, who heads an organization called the Congressional Education Foundation for Public Policy.

He disappeared last week, about the time that the performers and beauty queens were expecting to receive final details on their travel and lodging arrangements, and around the same time that the hotel where the ball was supposed to be held pulled the plug when it had not received payment.

Several other people who had been working with Hayes also said they’ve been contacted by criminal investigators who were trying to locate Hayes and determine what happened to the money donated by corporate sponsors and charities and raised through ticket sales to the ball.

“Up until two days before we were supposed to fly, Dante Hayes was still talking to us and promising everything was fine, but when we asked about the travel arrangements, he promised to send an e-mail with details by 9 p.m. We never got it, and never heard from him again,” Slater said. “I keep asking myself, ‘How did this happen?’ It will always be a disappointment that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was lost.”

Hayes did not respond to telephone calls to three different numbers he had provided to people involved in helping with the inaugural, and he also did not respond to e-mail. Entertainers, the hotel where the ball was going to be held, the people invited to attend and those who bought tickets — which sold for up to $385 for veterans and $500 for nonveterans — said they have not heard from Hayes since they learned there was no ball, no visits with veterans and no money to be turned over to charities.

“You try to call his voice mail, and it’s full,” Slater said.

The person who convinced Nikki Slater and other beauty queens, charities and corporate sponsors to sign on to the event said she also is a victim.

Beth Jannery, Ms. Virginia Galaxy 2009, an author, motivational speaker and public relations consultant, said she became involved after contacting Hayes last fall to volunteer to help with the event.

“I have a lot of experience with planning events, especially those involved with veterans, and thought this sounded like a good idea,” said Jannery, who lives in Great Falls, Va., “I called him because I want to support the troops and I liked the idea of a ball for veterans.”

Jannery said that when Hayes learned she was involved in pageants, he enlisted her to recruit pageant winners to take part in the event and also asked for her help in lining up corporate sponsors. Later, she also was promised a six-figure job that never materialized after a sales pitch in which Hayes took her to what ended up being a rented meeting room at an exclusive downtown Washington, D.C., hotel that he claimed was his office space.

“He was just lying, lying right up until the last minute,” Jannery said

Jannery said she became suspicious when plans kept changing, conference calls to go over details were postponed or canceled, and Hayes kept finding excuses not to provide a tax identification number that would show his foundation was registered with the IRS as a nonprofit organization, something needed by corporate sponsors when making charitable donations.

“Sponsors started asking for details,” Jannery said. “People who were traveling were expecting to hear about arrangements, and some were told they might have to pay for their own airfare but all other expenses were going to be covered. Then, he started to hang up on people and he finally stopped taking telephone calls.”

Sponsors and charities that provided money are waiting to see what happens next.

“It isn’t clear if there’s any money to return,” Jannery said.