All Roger Davidson – a Grammy-winning composer and heir to a massive oil fortune – wanted was to get his computer fixed.
According to authorities in New York State, he ended up being scammed out of as much as $20 million (U.S.) by the computer store’s owner, Vickram Bedi.
Bedi, 36, spun a bizarre story for Davidson, 58, about a multinational plot to take over the U.S. government. Bedi and his Icelandic girlfriend, Helga Invarsdottir, now face charges in what police say was an elaborate scam, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The story begins in August 2004, when Davidson brought his malfunctioning computer into Bedi’s Mount Kisco, N.Y., store.
Bedi told Davidson that the computer was infected by a suspiciously malevolent virus. He said he had traced the virus to a hard-drive hidden in Honduras and that his uncle, an Indian army officer, had flown there to retrieve it.
While there, Bedi said, the uncle had also uncovered a plot by Polish priests in the Roman Catholic Opus Dei organization to destabilize the government of the United States.
Bad news for Roger Davidson the American was also bad news for Roger Davidson the private citizen. Bedi told Davidson he had also been targeted by Opus Dei for assassination.
Opus Dei has become a familiar boogeyman in the literature of conspiracy, including Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
However outlandish, the story appears to have convinced Davidson. He began paying Bedi and Invarsdottir for around-the-clock protection, most of it virtual. The reported price tag for these services was $160,000 (U.S.) per month.
“The suspects were isolating the victim and were basically trying to control every dollar that he had,” Harrison, N.Y., police chief Anthony Marraccini told the Journal. “They did it very systematically and infiltrated every aspect of his life. It was almost a brainwashing technique.”
When they were arrested, Invarsdottir and Bedi were sitting on bank accounts holding $7.6 million. Both are being held on a count of grand larceny.
Police told the Journal the scam was uncovered as part of an investigation into a separate criminal matter.
Davidson, through an intermediary, refused comment.
