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By Lookout Staff

November 13 -- A Santa Monica electronics merchant and two of its corporate officers face criminal charges for stiffing customers and operating without a license, the City Attorneys office said Tuesday.

TV Authority and its officers, Neil Bruce Kusens and Jason Palmer, are being charged with 14 misdemeanor offenses that carry a maximum penalty of six months in county jail and a fine of $1,000, according to City officials.

TV Authority, which sold high-end televisions and other electronics, is no longer in business, officials said. In addition to operating a store at 410 Broadway in Santa Monica, the business sold merchandise over the internet at the website TVAuthority.com.

“There are some people who never got their products, and some people who got some of their products,” said Deputy City Attorney Eda Suh.

Of the dozen customers who complained, “almost all” had ordered their merchandise on the Internet, Suh said.

According to the complaint, TV Authority and its officers violated state law by taking payments from numerous customers but failing to provide the merchandise, or a refund. The defendants are also charged with operating a business without a license.

In addition, defendant Jason Palmer is charged with operating a business called Arthouse Gallery without a license. Located in the same building as TV Authority, the gallery opened in July 2006 and is now closed.

The gallery “was set up as a showroom and a resource for its affiliated partners, interior designers, architects and homebuilders to visit with their clients,” according to the City Attorneys office.

The defendants are set to be arraigned in LAX Superior Court on December 4, 2007.

The City Attorney’s Office is continuing to investigate the case. Consumers who have lost money to TV Authority should immediately contact the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit at 310-458-8336.