Peninsula Dry Cleaner Accused of Defrauding Customers $700,000

By Bay City News Service:

The owner of a Menlo Park dry cleaning business was arrested Wednesday for allegedly defrauding dozens of customers a total of nearly $700,000, police said.

Edwin Gary Smith, 63, was arrested at his Menlo Park home around 1:50 p.m. on suspicion of identity theft, credit card fraud, elderly fiduciary abuse and other charges, police said.

He is the owner of Menalto Cleaners located at 1921 Menalto Ave. and police had obtained an arrest warrant for 40 felony counts, according to police.

An investigation into the fraud began in September 2014 when officers were notified of a large-scale credit card theft and later learned seven people lost a combined total of more than $200,000, police said.

The following month, officers and detectives served search warrants at the business and Smith’s home in the 400 block of O’Connor Street in Menlo Park, police said.

Evidence of the alleged crimes was seized during the searches and on that same month police learned there were possibly 30 victims, according to police.

By late December, police determined there were 38 victims that in all lost $678,000 between December 2011 and October 2014 when they were overcharged large amounts of money on their credit cards.

Smith was arrested in front of his home without incident and booked into San Mateo County Jail. His bail is set at $500,000.

One user on the business’s Yelp page wrote in September, “Gary runs a quality business. He takes pride in his work, is a good neighbor and will always do his best to satisfy his customers.” Another user in January 2014 wrote of being charged $12,000 and was told by Gary “that this ‘error’ happened with a couple of other customers and he would get to it.”

Other users wrote that the business’s prices were expensive. According to its website, the Menalto Cleaners offers dry cleaning, laundry, alteration and shoe repair services.

The store also has pick-up and delivery services available in Los Altos, Menlo Park, the Stanford University area, Woodside, and Palo Alto.

The business’s website states that Smith lives near the cleaners and most of his neighbors are his customers.

The website states that department store Neiman Marcus, The Polo Store and retailer Ann Taylor are also clients.

Online county records show an application for Menalto Cleaners was filed under E. Gary Inc. in 1993.