Identity Theft Ring Targeted Forbes 400, Prosecutors Charge
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A Russian man who allegedly stole the identities of people on the Forbes 400 list of wealthy Americans was the leader of an identity theft ring, the Manhattan district attorney’s office charged yesterday.
Igor Klopov, a 24-year-old Russian national, and four alleged accomplices were arrested by undercover investigators after they allegedly attempted to steal $7 million from a Texas millionaire and political backer of President Bush, Sam Wyly Jr. They are also charged with having stolen $1.5 million from other wealthy Americans, the office said.
Prosecutors charge that, working from his home in Moscow, Mr. Klopov hired Americans to assist him in allegedly stealing the identities of wealthy residents of Texas, Oregon, and California who had large home equity lines of credit, the office said. Mr. Klopov and his accomplices allegedly assumed their victims’s identities by obtaining personal and financial information over the Internet, according to charges filed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
A task force of federal and city investigators began to sniff Mr. Klopov’s trail when a member of the Identity Theft Unit at the Manhattan district attorney’s office assumed the identity of one of Mr. Klopov’s alleged accomplices, the office said. The investigator maintained a relationship with Mr. Klopov, leading him to believe he was part of the scam, the office said.
The investigation charges that Mr. Klopov assumed the identity of Mr. Wyly in November and had a checkbook linked to a JP Morgan Chase account owned by Mr. Wyly sent to an accomplice in Houston.
The alleged accomplice, Westley Watson, is accused of attempting to buy $7 million in gold from a dealer in Westchester using the account, but JP Morgan Chase suspected a scam and informed investigators, the office said.
Mr. Klopov was arrested in May after investigators lured him from Russia to New York, the office said. Mr. Watson and three others were arrested in connection with the alleged scam yesterday in Texas, Michigan, Florida, and Kentucky, the office said.
The defendants were being charged with a number of felonies in New York yesterday, including grand larceny and money laundering in the first-degree, that carry a maximum sentence of 25 years.
