My question involves criminal law for the state of: Virgina
Last year I was invited to speak at a conference for 'The Sports Resume'. The proprietor George Bowser - invited me to fly to Richmond and speak at his conference with an appearance fee to be paid in the sum of $2500 plus expenses to be covered. I incurred about $1000 in expenses to attend.
I booked travel and appeared. Then the song and dance began. I have tons of emails back and forth about how he would pay but he simply doesn't have the money to do so. Many false promises about payment - all going nowhere.
I am curious what my recourse is. If I go to small claims court - and win a judgement (which for sure I would just based on the email promises alone) it doesn't appear that there is much that can be done to enforce that judgement.
I would like to press criminal charges for theft of service. He consumed my services all the while knowing that he does not have the ability to pay for it. It wasn't just me - there are 4 others that also attended and have been treated the same.

