San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Event planner’s claims dubious
USDA contract winner’s purported ties unproven
A local event planner who landed a $39 million federal contract to deliver food to needy families has boasted about clients who say they’ve never worked with him, cited unearned professional credentials and touted business affiliations that can’t be verified, a San Antonio Express-News investigation found.
Despite having no experience in food distribution, Gregorio Palomino was granted a contract by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its new Farmers to Families Food Box program, designed to get surplus food into the hands of desperate families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The contract requires Palomino’s company — CRE8AD8, pronounced “Create A Date” — to buy 18 million pounds of food, pack it into 750,000 individual boxes and transport the boxes to food banks and other nonprofits in seven states — all in less than six weeks.
Industry professionals have raised doubts about an inexperienced company’s ability to pull off such an ambitious project.
On his company’s website, Palomino has listed USAA, Valero Energy and Fiesta San Antonio among his clients.
Officials at those companies say they’ve never done business with Palomino or his firm. Their names vanished from CRE8AD8’s website after the Express-News began making inquiries.
Palomino’s LinkedIn profile says he served on the board of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The chamber says he never was on its board.
Palomino said he was awarded an event-planning contract by the North Dakota Department of Transportation earlier this year. The agency said CRE8AD8’s bid was rejected.
In promoting CRE8AD8, Palomino claims to have operations in 27 cities around the world, includ
ing Houston, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Paris, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Tokyo and Moscow.
No addresses or phone numbers are listed for any of them.
The company website does list an address for CRE8AD8’s “global headquarters” in San Antonio. It appears to be a mailbox at a UPS store in a North Side strip mall.
Palomino told an industry publication his company had amassed more than 60 awards while being “regularly featured as one of the fastest-growing companies both in our industry and within the general business community.”
An extensive search for articles about CRE8AD8 turned up only a handful in online magazines. Industry professionals in San Antonio weren’t familiar with the company.
Success ‘required’
The Farmers to Families program is intended to make use of surplus fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products that otherwise would go to waste because growers’ usual customers — such as restaurants, hotels and schools — have closed or drastically reduced their purchases. Some farmers had been discarding produce for lack of buyers.
The USDA received more than 550 proposals to serve seven supplier regions. CRE8AD8 has been contracted to supply the Southwestern Region, which includes Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah.
In all, the government granted more than 200 contracts, worth a combined $1.2 billion. CRE8AD8’s was the seventh largest in the nation.
Eric Cooper, CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank, said a lot is riding on Palomino’s ability to deliver.
“What it ultimately means is nourishment for families that are hungry,” Cooper said. “Success on this is not an option. It’s really required. Failure could cause a family to go hungry.”
To fulfill the contract, CRE8AD8 needs refrigerated storage, food-safe space for packing the boxes and refrigerated vehicles for transportation. Palomino has estimated he will need to hire 100 workers or more.
“Our team is working around the clock,” Palomino said in an interview. “It’s beautiful … the relationship between the San Antonio Food Bank and CRE8AD8 has been exceptional.”
He said he’s working with other food banks too.
“They are sending us dozens of emails a day, asking what we can do to make their life easier, which is fantastic,” Palomino said. “The fact that the food banks want this food and want us to be successful — and we are going to be successful — is really amazing.”
He said his team had come up with “game plans for 95 percent or more” of the food banks and other nonprofits CRE8AD8 plans to serve.
In the competition for USDA contracts, CRE8AD8 won out over established food distributors.
A USDA spokesperson told the Express-News that “proposals were evaluated by, in descending order of importance, the technical information contained, the prices offered, past performances of the bidder and the bidder’s capability to perform.”
The spokesperson added the evaluation criteria gave weight to small businesses and “those that will support local and regional farmers.”
Palomino secured the contract despite lacking a USDA Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA) license, required to operate a produce business.
Palomino since has acquired a PACA license.
‘A great job’
Palomino, 37, was born in Temple, moved to San Antonio in the early 1990s and attended MacArthur High School for a time, a biography on his Facebook page says.
He moved to the DallasFort Worth area, but later returned to San Antonio and attended UTSA, where he majored in marketing, management and public relations, the biography states.
In 2004, he was arrested and charged with impersonating a public servant after an encounter with UTSA police. Officers had pulled over three of Palomino’s friends on suspicion of drunken driving when Palomino approached and began “questioning the investigation,” a police report states.
Two officers said Palomino pretended he was a lawyer for the Dallas public defender’s office. Palomino denied making such a claim, and a judge dismissed the case for insufficient evidence.
Palomino started CRE8AD8 in 2007. By his description on Facebook, the company “has grown from a 1-man start-up to a 30+ employee multimillion-dollar agency specializing in event management, concierge services, event brokerage, venue management & travel agency.”
CRE8AD8’s website says it “employs over 200 talented Certified professionals,” operates on six continents and “competes on international levels with some of the major players in the industry.”
On his LinkedIn page, Palomino claims to speak five languages.
At least one of Palomino’s clients, the Health Cell, says he performed admirably.
The nonprofit brings together leaders in San Antonio’s medical, biotech, military and academic fields to promote collaboration and professional development.
For five years, CRE8AD8 planned an annual showcase event for Health Cell.
“He did a great job,” said Brigitta Glick, a founder and CEO of Health Cell. “He really helped elevate us. He took us from one level, really, to another in terms of production and lighting and sound.
“These are huge events, with about 500 people in attendance. All the movers and shakers in health care in San Antonio attend, so there is a lot of high expectations, and he did a great job.”
‘Clients’ who aren’t
Other San Antonio organizations that CRE8AD8 has listed as clients did not offer such testimonials.
USAA, Valero Energy and Fiesta San Antonio all said they never had hired Palomino’s company.
“We don’t have any financial records of doing business with that entity,” Valero spokeswoman Lillian Riojas said.
USAA officials said the same thing.
Fiesta San Antonio’s executive director, Amy Shaw, said she couldn’t find any records of a relationship with CRE8AD8 either, so she emailed the company asking that Fiesta’s name be removed from its website.
Within days, all references to USAA, Valero and Fiesta San Antonio had been deleted from CRE8AD8.com.
Palomino insisted “we did perform and execute events for both” Valero and Fiesta San Antonio. He said he could not go into detail, because he had signed nondisclosure agreements with both organizations.
He also said Valero and Fiesta San Antonio had “granted verbal rights” allowing CRE8AD8 to use their logos on its website.
“These respectable organizations have changed their policies since our last engagement, and we were requested to go through a process to gain their permission for future use,” Palomino said in explaining why their names had been removed from his website.
Shaw said Fiesta San Antonio doesn’t require any of its clients to sign nondisclosure agreements. She also said it did not grant verbal approval to use Fiesta’s logo or name.
Asked for names of other CRE8AD8 clients, Palomino demurred, saying he couldn’t release what he described as confidential information.
‘No record’
Palomino’s LinkedIn page has listed “CMP” after his name, a designation for Certified Meeting Professional. It’s a credential awarded by the Events Industry Council in Washington and regarded as the “badge of excellence” in the events industry.
Certification is granted based on professional experience, education and a rigorous exam.
A council spokesperson said records show Palomino “has never been a CMP.”
Asked to explain, Palomino said: “My CMP is a different acronym, and we found out that the organizing association that put it together didn’t say we could use CMP, because I guess it was trademarked with the Events Industry Council, which we did not get it through.”
The designation disappeared from Palomino’s LinkedIn profile.
Asked why, Palomino said that after CRE8AD8 won the federal food box contract, it needed to “clean everything up, reverify everything.”
His LinkedIn profile also says Palomino served on the board of directors of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2010 and 2011. His Facebook biography says he “currently” sits on the board.
“We have no record of Greg ever being a board member,” said Brandon Petrosky, the chamber’s chief financial officer. “He was a dues-paying member from 2007 to 2010 but not a board member.”
Palomino said Petrosky is mistaken.
“I was a board member,” Palomino said. “I have photos, documents, board member pin and dozens of sources who can vouch for my participation, attendance and service during that time.”
The Hispanic Chamber’s annual federal tax filings list all board members by name. The Express-News examined the filings for the 2010 and 2011 calendar years. Palomino’s name does not appear on the list of board members for either year.
Palomino’s LinkedIn page also lists “presidential inauguration” as one of his projects. Asked for details, he said the reference was to the inauguration of UTSA President Taylor Eighmy in March 2018.
UTSA confirmed Palomino provided decorating and video services for the event.
North Dakota
In March, CRE8AD8 filed papers to incorporate in North Dakota, listing Cole J. Sandau, 28, of Elgin, N.D., as its registered agent.
But Sandau said he isn’t a registered agent for CRE8AD8 and doesn’t even know Palomino.
“I haven’t heard hide nor hair from the guy,” he said.
A registered agent is a person or entity hired to accept service of process and official mail on behalf of a business.
Sandau isn’t a professional registered agent; he’s a cattle rancher who operates a hauling business on the side. The only thing he’s an agent for is his own business.
Palomino said CRE8AD8 chose Sandau from a list of registered agents on the North Dakota secretary of state’s website.
Darcy Hurley, an administrative staff officer for the North Dakota secretary of state’s office, said Sandau isn’t on the agency’s list of registered agents. She suggested Palomino might have come across the name as the agent of Sandau’s own company.
In any case, Hurley said, Palomino should have sought Sandau’s permission before listing him as a registered agent.
Sandau will be removed as CRE8AD8’s agent. Palomino has 60 days to find a new one or his rights to do business in North Dakota will be revoked, Hurley said.
Palomino said he incorporated in North Dakota to do business there after CRE8AD8 was awarded a contract with the North Dakota Department of Transportation.
David Finley, a department spokesman, said CRE8AD8 submitted a bid to become event coordinator for the department’s safety division but was not awarded the contract.
CRE8AD8 was added to the state’s vendor pool, Finley said.
On his Facebook page, Palomino says he’s “a firm believer in small business.”
In that same post, Palomino describes himself as “a public figure for taking San Antonio and surrounding areas to a new level of lifestyle, culture and more!”