Houston Check Scammer Arrested

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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 69719.html

Counterfeit scam busted here began in Nigeria
By DANE SCHILLER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
April 21, 2010, 8:30PM
photo
Courtesy photo

Former inmate James Eddie Brown was arrested in Houston as part of an alleged counterfeit monetary instruments scam.

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A DHL Express driver came to the door of a far southwest Houston home, but the person in uniform was really an undercover agent.

The package contained nearly $750,000 in counterfeit monetary instruments, such as money orders and checks, fresh from Nigeria.

It also was outfitted with a hidden beacon to signal waiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who, soon after, raided the modest brick town home on Windjammer Street.

The action points to the increase in financial scams and growing reach of criminals, who surf the Internet and use other means to anonymously troll for unwitting victims and pass off many millions of dollars a month in bogus dealings in Houston and across the country.

But even criminal organizations based abroad — and seemingly out of the reach of some U.S. law enforcement — need an American connection to enhance the legitimacy of their schemes.

Inside the house during the late March raid, agents found an additional $1.8 million in bogus monetary instruments, as well ledgers, check-writing software, commercial grade printers, computers and Western Union receipts, according to federal court papers filed last week.

The counterfeit loot was stashed in the attic and elsewhere, according to an affidavit signed by an ICE agent who is a former military-intelligence officer.

Authorities won't comment on the record about the ongoing investigation, but said the allegations have the earmarks of Internet-based scams in which predators comb online sites.

They pretend to buy everything from cars to property to furniture.

Typically, the criminals do business only via the Web and mail, never making face-to-face contact.

They send fake money orders for more than the price of what they are buying — as much as 25 percent more. Then they ask to have the extra money sent back to them.

“It has definitely exploded because of the Internet,” said a federal agent who spoke on the condition that he not be named. “They are not really even interested in the merchandise. This is not something (just in) Houston, but across the United States.”

Fakes can at times linger in banks just long enough to make them look legitimate.

“Playing on people's gullibility. It is the same old thing, only a different twist on it,” said Tim Foley, special agent in charge of the Secret Service in Houston.

“There have been con artists and scams forever,” said Foley, who is not involved in the ICE investigation. “The same kind of con artists that existed 100 years ago are now coming to the Internet.”

Foley pointed to scam e-mails that are known to come of out of Africa and elsewhere in which people claim to be wealthy and need a partner to get cash out of the country.

His advice: Know who you are doing business with, wait until a check clears before sending merchandise.

As for the Houston bust, the ICE agent's report, filed in federal court, lays out steps agents took to try and make their case, which began to unfold in late March.

The man who signed for the package was arrested on counterfeiting charges.

He first tried to pass himself off with an alias, Eddie Wrobiv, according to the court documents, but was really James Eddie Brown, 54.

State court documents show Brown was convicted of rape in Brazos County in 1984 and sentenced to 35 years, but was released in 1997 and has been living in Harris County.

He also has convictions in Los Angeles in the late 1970s for assault with a deadly weapon and passing a check with insufficient funds.

His Houston lawyer declined to comment.

Authorities won't say how they knew about the package, which according to court documents was “targeted,” or how Brown allegedly got into the counterfeiting business, let alone how he made a connection with criminals in Africa.

The ICE affidavit notes the package first landed on U.S. soil via a flight from the United Kingdom under Airway Bill 1032157965.

DHL's online records show the package was mailed March 24 from Lagos, Nigeria, and made its way to Houston via the United Kingdom and Ohio .

Beatrice Garcia, director of media relations for DHL Americas, said the company works to keep contraband out of its system.

“We do work closely with the authorities and when they ask us for help, we cooperate where we can,” she said.