Until Monday night, when he sat next to him at Biddy McGraw’s Irish Pub in Northeast Portland, Deputy U.S. Marshal William Boldin had never personally glimpsed the man who had called himself Bobby Charles Thompson.
Boldin had seen Thompson’s photograph many times, of course, primarily on phony driver’s licenses uncovered during six months of wading through “alias after alias after alias.” He’d heard Thompson’s voice in multiple television interviews and other appearances at which Thompson solicited millions for a Tampa, Fla.-based charity he claimed aided U.S. Navy veterans.
http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html
The man didn’t say anything as he sat at the bar for an hour, drinking a beer, but Boldin was sure he’d found the guy suspected of running a scam that involved up to $100 million in 41 states. He repeated that assurance Tuesday afternoon during an identity hearing in U.S. District Court.
“I’m extremely familiar with the individual we know as Bobby Charles Thompson,” said Boldin, who flew to Portland from Ohio after getting a tip Thompson was here. From the witness stand, he nodded to where the suspect, wearing blue jail overalls, sat with his court-appointed attorney.
“I can state without question,” Boldin said, “that’s the man sitting here.”
Judge John Acosta agreed, and approved a warrant that will return the suspect to Ohio to face charges of theft, fraud, money laundering and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. The suspect disappeared after Ohio authorities indicted him in October 2010.
The arrest caps an investigation that spans multiple states and has been featured on the popular television show, “America’s Most Wanted.” Boldin, member of a federal fugitive task force in Ohio, was assigned last November to track down the man known as Thompson.
Intense media coverage of the alleged fraud produced a flood of tips, Boldin said, and the suspect left traces in New York, Florida, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Mexico and elsewhere. Recently, marshals began hearing the suspect had been sighted in the Northwest, in Seattle and Portland.
A tip led Boldin to Northeast Portland and to Biddy’s, the bar at 60th and Glisan.
But Boldin and other investigators still don’t who the man really is. The name, date of birth and Social Security number used by the arrested man belong to a retired Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, a Choctaw tribal member who reported his identity stolen.
The suspect had three wallets on him when he was arrested Monday night in Portland, Boldin said. Inside were driver’s licenses and Social Security cards in three names — none of them Thompson — supposedly issued by New Mexico, California and Oregon, plus a work permit and permanent resident cards that identified the holder as Canadian. On the New Mexico license, Albuquerque was spelled wrong, Boldin testified.
When the man thought to be Thompson left the bar at Northeast 60th Avenue and Glisan Street, Boldin and other officers followed and arrested him outside a home on Northeast 72nd Avenue. Boldin said he wanted to see where the suspect lived because there is “a considerable amount of money unaccounted for” in the investigation and the suspect appeared to have an “unlimited number of fake IDs.” Evidence, if any, recovered from the home was not disclosed in court Tuesday.
Very little of the donations collected by the Florida charity, U.S. Navy Veterans Association, was actually used to help veterans, authorities allege.
“The vast majority of the money vanished,” Boldin said after the court hearing. He said the investigation is destined to be one of the most memorable of his career.
The man thought to be Thompson, heavyset, middle-age and limping, appeared subdued and said little during the court hearing. His black hair, streaked with gray, was combed straight back, and he put on metal-framed reading glasses to peruse the Ohio arrest warrant and supporting documents with federal public defender Ruben Iñiguez. He repeatedly shook his head in apparent disagreement with the allegations.
The Oregon Department of Justice opened a charitable activities investigation after reading news accounts of the Navy veterans association scam, spokesman Tony Green said Tuesday. As Ohio proceeded with its criminal case, however, Oregon deferred to that state’s prosecution, Green said.
