Washington state to seize bank accounts of Nevada trip organizer

David R. Ward and his girlfriend, Sandi L. Jensen, did not appear at a Friday hearing in Yakima County Superior Court to argue against a lawsuit filed by the state last month.

The couple ran Nevada Winners, a company that claimed to provide customers with low-cost airfare and accommodations in Las Vegas. Instead, the state Attorney General's Office alleges Ward and Jensen deceived customers, failed to make refunds and made unauthorized credit-card charges.

The Attorney General's Office, which has received about 200 complaints against Nevada Winners, filed the lawsuit against the company on July 30. Since then, Ward and Jensen have disappeared.

"We can't find them," said Regina Cullen, assistant attorney general in the office's Consumer Protection Division in Seattle.

The lawsuit seeks restitution for customers who paid for trips that never materialized and a permanent injunction prohibiting the company from repeating its practices of deception.

Since Ward and Jensen to appear at the first scheduled court hearing, Cullen said the state will try to seize the company's bank accounts. A temporary restraining order requiring the company to follow state laws has also been extended, she said.

In a June interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic, Ward maintained his business was legitimate and blamed its problems on scheduling conflicts and other unavoidable problems.

An Arizona court last year ordered Nevada Winners to pay one airline, Sun Pacific International, nearly $1 million for a series of flights.

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