March 6, 2026
The LA Times Reported Leo Grillo’s Arrest and Missed the Important Facts
The Los Angeles Times reported that the FBI arrested Leo Grillo, 77, founder of DELTA Rescue, the world’s largest no-kill animal sanctuary, founded in Acton. The FBI charged him with attempted kidnapping. The alleged target was Adriana Duarte Valentines, a former DELTA employee. A judge denied bond. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years.
They Never Identified the Informant
The Times described the confidential informant in this case as an anonymous “Arizona businessman with contacts in Mexico.” They printed his description from the DOJ press release.
Frank Report did one better. We identified him.
The cooperating witness is James Clark, owner of Midas Gold Group LLC, headquartered at 625 W. Deer Valley Road, Suite 109, Phoenix, Arizona.
On June 7, 2024 — six months before he entered this case to set up Grillo — Clark placed Midas Gold Group into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona, Case No. 2:24-bk-04587-DPC.
Midas Gold Group ran a precious metals IRA business generating $143 million in revenue in 2021, $83 million in 2022, and $91 million in 2023.
The creditor list shows dozens of IRA investors — retirees in Indiana, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, Washington State, California — who lost their retirement money through Clark’s collapse.
No wonder the FBI kept him anonymous.
Claims against this grifter total $3.35 million.
The FBI affidavit did disclose Clark’s legal jeopardy (and his motive to set Grillo up) in a footnote: “CW1 (Clark) is the target of a separate FBI investigation into alleged fraud. CW1 is working with law enforcement in hopes of receiving favorable consideration in connection with that investigation.”
The LA Times never mentioned the footnote that explains everything about this case — why the cooperating witness came forward, what he stood to gain, and why his testimony demands a little scrutiny.
Clark’s Pattern
This is not the first time Clark has turned on someone under legal pressure. In 2012, Clark gave a deposition against his father, Jim Clark, in a civil lawsuit. His father was convicted of white-collar fraud.
If karma works, it comes around. After doing in his dad, to save his arse, James Clark’s world collapsed — bankruptcy, federal fraud investigation, retirees’ savings gone.
But Clark had a way out. Guys like him always figure out a way out. Throw your dad under the bus. Throw elderly people on a pension out of a bus. Why not?
And take a client who bought gold bullion from you, set him up for a crime, and get out of jail free, he thinks.
And if you have to lie a little, well, you’re James Clark. Lying comes easy. Just like it comes easy to ambitious FBI agents out California way.
Sources familiar with the case say Clark had swindled $50,000 from Grillo for the supposed documentary project and delivered nothing. He was defrauding Grillo before the alleged kidnapping conversations began.
But he needed more than grifting. Clark needed to deliver a scalp to the FBI, in place of his own. His dad was unavailable, having known the rascal he sired. So he chose his former client Leo Grillo.
They Never Examined the Recording Failures
The Times, in a masterpiece of government propaganda reporting, handed its readers the government’s version of four meetings between Grillo and Clark.
The December 2025 meeting — where Grillo allegedly first discussed gathering information on Duarte. It was not recorded. We have only Clark’s word for what happened.
The January 7, 2026, meeting — where Grillo allegedly proposed kidnapping Duarte and her child and offered $100,000 — was not recorded. Again, only Clark’s word.
The February 13 meeting lasted about 2.5 hours. The recording equipment conveniently failed after thirty minutes.
The final meeting on March 3 was recorded as audio. The video conveniently failed.
Four meetings. The two where Grillo supposedly made the most damaging statements have no recordings. The meeting where he allegedly confirmed the plan in detail was recorded for only 30 minutes of the 2.5 hours.
The meeting where Grillo supposedly looked at a photo, the meeting where the video to prove guilt is critical, sadly, the video failed.
The case depends on the testimony of a man facing federal fraud charges connected to the collapse of a precious metals IRA business that cost retirees their savings.
The Times never mentioned this.
They Never Reported Grillo’s Version
The Times reported only the government’s interpretation.
According to sources familiar with his account, Grillo called Clark because Clark had business connections in Mexico — a money exchange, a limousine operation, a house there. Grillo thought Clark knew powerful lawyers in Mexico who could approach Duarte.
He was trying to save his 1500 dogs, cats, and horses.
The idea, as Grillo understood it, was to invite Duarte voluntarily to Mexico, where a lawyer would show her that her immigration exposure — illegal entry, a fraudulent Social Security number, years of unpaid taxes — made her vulnerable, and that settling with Grillo was in her interest.
Sources say the plan also included having a Mexican lawyer help Duarte file a malpractice case against her American attorney, Jacob Nalbandyan, whom Grillo believed had been holding out on a one-million-dollar settlement offer — keeping Duarte from money she could have had.
The goal was not to hold Duarte hostage. The goal, as Grillo understood it, was to show her she was being used by her own lawyer and give her a path to actually getting paid.
Grillo Rejected the Kidnapping
Over the subsequent months, Clark kept him updated — the location had changed, drug wars had made certain areas unavailable, and logistics were shifting. Each time, sources say, the plan in Grillo’s mind remained the same: bring Duarte willingly, have a lawyer persuade her, reach a settlement.
At one point, sources say, Clark, trying to create a crime, proposed having people physically take Duarte. Grillo rejected it explicitly. If true, that directly negates the specific intent the government must prove. Attempted kidnapping requires that Grillo intended to seize and hold Duarte against her will. A man who explicitly rejected coercive abduction when it was proposed to him does not have that intent.
Sources also say Grillo had a deal memo establishing the documentary project as a real and legitimate undertaking, predating the alleged kidnapping conversations. That document, if produced, would corroborate his defense.
LA Times Never Questioned the Photo
The FBI affidavit says Grillo “identified” the woman in the fake photograph as Duarte. The Times reported this as though it were independent recognition.
Clark had just told Grillo they had Duarte. He showed him a blurry, possibly AI-generated photo. Then he told him who was in it. Grillo allegedly identified her.
That is a 77-year-old man in a camper van in a parking lot, looking at a photo on someone’s phone after being told who he was looking at.
Somehow the video failed.
They Never Reported the Trial Background
Without the trial background, Grillo’s motive looks simple and sinister — a man who lost a lawsuit and decided to kidnap the plaintiff.
The Times never told readers that it was a show trial, that Judge Escalante barred the jury from learning Duarte had entered the United States illegally, used a fabricated Social Security number to gain employment at DELTA, and, according to a forensic audit, stole more than $339,000 in pet food and supplies from DELTA, which she sold at weekend swap meets for cash.
The Times never told readers that the jury saw Grillo’s deposition clips — “bimbo,” “lettuce picker,” “criminal,” “Mexican” — played approximately 50 times on a 47-inch screen, without context, without the questions that preceded them, out of sequence.
For example, Grillo called Duarte a “lettuce picker” not because he was biased against Mexicans but because that is what she told DELTA she had done. To get the job at DELTA, where she supplemented her income through stealing, she claimed to be a migrant agricultural worker who had spent years harvesting lettuce in rural California. It was a lie. She had never picked a head of lettuce in her life. The jury heard the words “lettuce picker” fifty times. They never heard the reason why he called her that, and wondered why she, who cleaned cat litter at DELTA and before that was a lettuce picker, should get 6.7 million for lost wages and unfair termination.
The Theatrics That Inflamed the Jury
The Times never told readers that Duarte’s attorney Jacob Nalbandyan brought her four-year-old daughter to court dressed in rags and carried her in front of the jury. One juror brought a gift for the child. The Times never told readers that during closing arguments, Nalbandyan asked the jury for ten million dollars for every tear Duarte had shed and would shed in the future.
None of that excuses what Grillo allegedly did, if he did it. But all of it is essential to understanding why a 77-year-old man who had spent 45 years building a no-kill sanctuary found himself in a camper van in a Burbank parking lot writing a check to a federal informant.
The Check
Grillo allegedly saw a photograph of a woman bound with zip ties. Duct tape over her mouth. The video that would have shown him actually looking at the photo failed. He was told Duarte was being held.
He wrote a $10,000 check.
Sources familiar with his account say Grillo deliberately used a check he could stop payment on — because something felt wrong. That is not the behavior of a man confidently financing a kidnapping. That is the behavior of a man who suspected he was being played and was hedging his bets.
Grillo’s explanation: he believed the people in the photograph were being held by Mexican police conducting a lawful operation. He believed Clark’s Mexican lawyer contacts had found legitimate charges against Duarte.
Whether a jury believes that is another matter. But it is not implausible, given everything Clark had been lying to him about for months.
The Bottom Line
The Los Angeles Times had the FBI affidavit. They had the DOJ press release. They wrote what those documents said and called it a story.
They never questioned a single element of the government’s case.
A man facing 20 years in federal prison deserves a media that reads the footnotes. The footnote in the FBI affidavit is the whole story.
Leo Grillo is a former client of the author. Frank Parlato has previously published investigative reporting on the civil case underlying this matter.
FBI Setup? DELTA Rescue’s Founder Arrested
FacebookXRedditLinkedInEmailLeo Grillo is a former client of the author. Frank Parlato has previously published investigative reporting on the civil case underlying this matter. Leo Grillo Arrested in Kidnapping Sting — The Man Who Set Him Up Had His Own Reasons Leo Grillo, 77, founder of DELTA Rescue — the no-kill animal sanctuary in Acton, which he built over 45 years — was arrested Tuesday on a federal charge of attempted kidnapping. The alleged target was Adriana Duarte Valentines, a former DELTA employee who won a $6.7 million wrongful termination verdict against him in November 2024. Federal prosecutors say Grillo paid … Continue readingFBI Setup? DELTA Rescue’s Founder Arrested
