Tasked with helping turn around the struggling San Bernardino International Airport, Scot Spencer is now accused of swindling more than a million dollars from the airport authority.
The District Attorney alleged the developer created at least one false lease agreement costing the airport more than $1 million.
Ever since Norton Air Force base left the area, the community has been struggling to move past the enormous economic hit.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos said many people with ties to Norton have been trying to help develop the base, which is now the San Bernardino International Airport.
"We all suffered but we didn’t just sit back," Ramos said. "A lot of us took a big responsibility in turning that place around."
Ramos has accused Spencer and Felice Luciano of committing fraud to the detriment of those workers, alleging that the men "took the passion of those people and turned it around and used that passion as their own piggy bank."
Ramos wouldn’t go into specifics, but said in 2008, Spencer and Luciano created a false lease agreement claiming the Democratic National Committee wanted to store an aircraft inside one of the hangars at the airport.
The DA said Spencer, Luciano and an unknown co-conspirator claimed the airport authority owed their companies money for that false lease agreement and collected more than a million dollars in compensation.