Photo: cyclonebill, via Wikimedia Commons

New York Attorney General Letitia James has launched a fraud and deceptive trade practices lawsuit against the producer of three Brooklyn-based food festivals that it says were “well-publicized disaster[s]” and actually became “food festivals without food.”

The festivals at the center of the action are the 2016 NYC African Food Festival, the 2017 NYC Pizza Festival and the 2017 NYC Hamburger Festival. And according to the Attorney General Office’s 29-page the complaint, lodged late last week in Brooklyn Supreme Court, the producer of the festivals, defendant Ishmael Osekre, engaged in deceptive trade practices, false advertising and fraud, with a reckless and indifferent abandon that “caus[ed] hardship to virtually everyone who is unlucky enough to become involved with him.”

“Then, after creating chaos, [he] takes the money and runs,” added the Attorney General’s Office, and that was “an act of brazen malfeasance belying any claim that [his] failures are solely attributable to his incompetence.”

“The most obvious harms stemming from [Osekre’s] failed festivals falls upon the consumers he cheats out of time and money,” the complaint also states.

“However, [Osekre] also cheats anyone who works with him in the production of these events,” the complaint continues. “Whether he collaborates with individuals, small vendors, or large business, those who work with [him] will almost invariably come out the worse for their involvement.

“Some will receive bad checks, others will receive only broken promises, but in the end, [he] will pay few if any of them for their services or products,” it says.

Osekre, who according to an electronic docket is representing himself pro se, could be reached for comment.

A request for comment on the lawsuit made to the Attorney General’s Office was not returned.

The lawsuit was signed last Thursday and docketed publicly Friday.

According to the complaint, Osekre, a self-employed event producer residing in Riverdale, Maryland, is a producer of culinary and cultural festivals that happen both in New York state and elsewhere.

The complaint details a host of problems at the three events, such as at the 2016 NYC African Food Festival, for which Osekre allegedly failed to pay deposits for the venue, failed to secure air conditioning for the event, and missed payments to vendors and businesses working with the production team.

At the same time, “in addition to money concerns, members of the production staff were growing concerned about how Respondent was conducting himself,” the complaint alleges.

“For example, [one member] pointed out to [Osekre] that his EventBrite advertisements and Facebook postings contained promises about elements of the festival that they both knew were not going to happen, such as presentations by cookbook authors, cooking demonstrations, and free samples of African cuisine” for attendees.

But it was the 2017 NYC Pizza Festival, which, according to a Crain’s article, prompted to the Attorney General’s Office to start investigating Osekre. The same article said that, on the the morning of Sept. 9, 2017, when the event was to take place in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Osekre was still ordering pizzas, calling various pizza businesses in the area, and asking for many dozens of pies.

But in the end, the article said, only a few dozen pies came, and they were cut up into small slivers of pizza, which made customers who paid irate and, in turn, instigated the James’ office to investigate.

Among other requested relief, the complaint asks for enjoinment of Osekre from engaging in the alleged fraudulent, deceptive, unfair and illegal practices and for him to pay full restitution and damages to customers, vendors and other businesses.