Man pleads guilty in Electric Daisy Carnival counterfeit wristband case

Attendees dance to the beat at Kinetic Field during the Electric Daisy Carnival at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, June 26, 2011.

By Conor Shine (contact)

Friday, Oct. 21, 2011 | 2:49 p.m.

Pathomrat Kunawongse

Arron Hernandez

One of the men accused in a scheme to sell about $1 million in counterfeit wristbands for last June’s Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas pleaded guilty in Clark County District Court on Friday morning.

As part of the plea agreement, 35-year-old Pathomrat Neil Kunawongse received a one-year suspended sentence with the conditions that Kunawongse pay a $2,000 fine, stay out of legal trouble and avoid any contact with the Electric Daisy Carnival.

Kunawongse, of Hacienda Heights, Calif., had been charged with conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to obtain money under false pretenses and attempted possession of stolen property.

His attorney, William Kennedy, said Kunawongse “is pleased that the matter has been resolved.”

The other man accused in the case, 37-year-old Arron Hernandez, was scheduled to be arraigned on two counts of conspiracy Friday morning, but his hearing has been rescheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 26.

According to a police report, a Metro Police detective received information that someone was trying to produce counterfeit wristbands for the June 24-26 Electronic Daisy Carnival music festival.

Detectives said they met with Meelo Solis, who works for Insomniac Inc., which put on the show. Solis told police that Kunawongse had called a friend in the printing business about producing the fraudulent unique cloth wristbands for the Las Vegas show and had sent him a digital image of the wristband so it could be produced, the police report said. Police were told the scheme was to produce 5,000 wristbands for $200 each and the printer would get 10 percent of the profits.

The police report said only four people, including Hernandez, who was on the Insomniac security staff, knew the designs. As assistant director of security for the carnival, Hernandez had access to the wristband design on June 19, officials said. He allegedly met with Kunawongse that day at Aliante Station and gave him a paper with an image of the guest wristband to be used for the event, according to the arrest report.

Police arrested Kunawongse during a staged meeting June 24 with Solis at the Cosmopolitan. Hernandez was later arrested at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the carnival.