http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/114664788373810.xml&coll=3
Man charged in bogus CIA scam
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
By BRENDAN KIRBY
Staff Reporter
A Baldwin County man arrested on federal charges of posing as a CIA
agent pleaded innocent Tuesday in Mobile.
A federal grand jury last week indicted Robert Chance White, 26, on
charges of impersonating a CIA agent, wrongful use of a government
seal and transportation of a person in unlawful interstate commerce.
FBI agents and Baldwin County sheriff's deputies arrested White about
10 p.m. Monday at his parent's home in Stockton, a community south of
Bay Minette.
According to the indictment, White tricked Sondra Maniatis of Mobile
into giving him $39,000. Part of the money was purportedly for a
special investment opportunity open only to CIA agents, authorities said.
The rest was supposed to be a temporary payment to secure a
scholarship at the American University of Paris for Maniatis'
daughter, who was not named in the indictment.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Murphy said law enforcement
investigators have cases involving the impersonation of government
agents from time to time, although, she added, White is accused of
defrauding his victim of a relatively high amount of money.
"This one is unusual because of the amount of fraud alleged," she said.
Lt. John Murphy, a spokesman with the Baldwin County Sheriff's
Office, said investigators were preparing separate state charges
against White stemming from the joint probe with the FBI.
He said deputies charged White with possession of a forged
instrument. White allegedly convinced a Bay Minette auto dealer in
summer 2005 to accept a personal check for a vehicle by presenting a
salesman with a phony document representing the defendant as a
government officer.
Murphy said White's bank account did not contain enough money to
cover the check.
Mobile lawyer Richard Horne, who is representing White at least
temporarily, declined to comment after Tuesday's brief hearing.
"I didn't know anything about these charges until about 9 o'clock
this morning," Horne said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sonja Bivins ordered White jailed until a
detention hearing is held Friday. Prosecutors have asked the judge to
keep White in jail until trial on the grounds that he's a risk to
flee. The FBI said White tried to hide from law enforcement officers
who arrested him Monday.
Horne said he would oppose the move.
"He's not a flight risk. He's not a danger to the community," Horne
said of his client.
Authorities said White, despite being married with one child and
another on the way, told Maniatis' daughter that he would marry her.
He also allegedly promised to get Maniatis a job in Paris as a CIA linguist.
A trip the three took to Paris forms the basis of the interstate
transportation charge, authorities said.
The indictment describes an elaborately cultivated identity as a spy
that White allegedly maintained from Jan. 1, 2005, until March of
this year. Authorities said White went so far as to arrange a meeting
at a Mobile coffee shop between Maniatis and a woman posing as a CIA
recruiter.
White used part of the money Maniatis paid him to fly her, her
daughter and himself to Paris in February to search for apartments,
authorities said. He also allegedly convinced Maniatis to give him
frequent flyer miles for a plane ticket to Romania.
The wrongful use of a government seal charge relates to allegations
that White gave Maniatis and her daughter documentation with the CIA
seal and a phony signature of CIA Director Porter Goss, according to
authorities.
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:19 CST