Phony Pharrell Williams concert used to scam South Korean firm out of US$375,000
A man scammed a South Korean steel company out of US$375,000 by claiming he worked with a Japanese talent agency that could help the company book a concert by musician Pharrell Williams, FBI agents said.
A man scammed a South Korean steel company out of US$375,000 by claiming he worked with a Japanese talent agency that could help the company book a concert by musician Pharrell Williams, FBI agents in Pennsylvania said.
Sigismond Segbefia, of Maryland, faces multiple charges, including wire fraud, bank fraud and identity theft. He is also accused of stealing the identity of a western Pennsylvania postal worker and using it to bilk more than US$445,000 from women he met on dating sites.
At least one woman lost US$185,000 from December 2013 to August last year in the scam, the FBI said. Segbefia convinced her that he owned a medical equipment business and kept running into financial difficulties while trying to ship some of the devices to England, the FBI said.
Segbefia, a native of Ghana who is in the US legally, was arrested by customs officials at Kennedy Airport in New York.
The 28-year-old Segbefia used a company he incorporated in Maryland in October 2013 called Eastern Stars to make his various claims seem legitimate, the FBI said.
He used the name when he contacted Dosko, a steelmaker in South Korea. The company wanted to book Williams for a concert in Seoul and wired US$375,000 to Eastern Stars,