Jun. 5, 2002 - Kalpana Patel thought she had found the perfect spot for a summer family reunion: Three sprawling rentals along scenic Mission Beach. 

So the Los Angeles housewife sent a $14,000 check earlier this year to Cequis of San Diego, a property management firm that finds vacation renters for owners of a string of beach homes in this area. 

But Patel's reunion plans which included hosting many of her relatives from Africa for the weeklong event have suddenly evaporated. 

Patel and dozens of other vacationers allege that Cequis took their money upfront for properties the company didn't manage and rented out homes that had already been leased, leaving many of them stranded without places to stay. 

"I don't think we'll ever see our money. It's gone," lamented Patel, who is now scrambling to find hotel accommodations for the family gathering. 

The District Attorney's Office is conducting a fraud investigation into Cequis' activities, including allegations from property owners that the company hasn't forwarded them their cut of rental money in months and that they have been paid with bad checks. 

Most of the rental homes managed by Cequis are in Mission Beach, although some are in Hawaii. 

A District Attorney's Office spokesman declined to discuss specifics of the case. 

A source close to the investigation said Cequis may have taken in up to $500,000 in inappropriate rental fees. 

Numerous calls placed yesterday to Cequis and its owner, Celeste Miranda, were not returned. Business owners and residents near Cequis' headquarters on Mission Boulevard said the company's offices have been empty since Memorial Day weekend. 

Miranda, a former real estate agent, had her broker's license revoked by the California Department of Real Estate in 1999. 

A spokeswoman with that agency yesterday said the revocation was related to Miranda's conviction five years ago in Riverside Superior Court for making false financial statements in using a roommate's credit card to buy flowers and gifts for friends. 

She also was convicted in 1997 in Orange County Superior Court for using someone else's personal and financial information to obtain a cellular phone. 

Court records indicate Miranda was sentenced to 30 days in jail for both offenses and fined a total of $700. 

One property owner who would like to find Miranda and other Cequis officials is Patty Shales, a Los Angeles physical therapist whose family owns a $2 million rental home on Mission Beach. 

Yesterday Shales said Cequis, which she hired in 1996 to manage the property, owes her $100,000 for rents it collected from November to March. 

Shales' attorney also has advised her to honor dozens of agreements Cequis made with renters for the coming summer season to avoid potential lawsuits. 

"Cequis' latest scam is to send (renters) letters saying the company is no longer the property manager and that they have forwarded all the rent money to property owners," Shales said. "Lies, lies and more lies." 

Cequis which was formerly known as Mission Bay Vacation Properties and Mission Bay Vacation Rentals has operated as a property middleman in the region's tourism industry since the mid-1990s, apparently with little incident. 

But things started to unravel for the firm in the past six months, according to a spokeswoman for the Better Business Bureau of San Diego and Imperial Counties. 

The agency has been inundated with more than 100 complaints about Cequis since the beginning of the year, some from property owners who say the company has continued to rent out their homes even after they severed agreements with the firm. 

"We want to alert renters coming to San Diego that, if they do business with Cequis, they may not have a place to stay," said Erin Jones, a BBB spokeswoman. 

Jones said she worries that Cequis executives may still be renting out Mission Beach vacation homes. 

Indeed, 25 Mission Beach properties continue to be offered for rent on the company's Web site. 

Most of these are listed at between $20,000 and $30,000 a month. 

For Paul Bennett of Arizona, it isn't necessarily the $500 he lost to Cequis that makes him mad, but the idea that he won't be sitting on Anini Beach in Kauai this month. 

Bennett and his wife sent Cequis a $500 rental deposit last August on a Hawaiian getaway home Cequis managed for a circuit judge on the island. 

Then, in April, the couple got a call from the judge informing them that he hadn't been paid by Cequis for months and that they should hang on to the rest of their money. 

"I am forever grateful to this man," Bennett said via e-mail yesterday. "I am out only $500 compared to many who were ripped off for thousands. I just don't take kindly to thieves." 

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(c) 2002, The San Diego Union-Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.