Thursday, December 8, 2011

Composer Scammed for $20M

A wealthy musician lost $20 million over six years to scammers who persuaded him - after finding a virus on his computer - of threats against him coming out of Central America, Opus Dei and the CIA, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore said a Chappaqua man was indicted last week in a scam targeting Roger Davidson, a pianist and composer from Katonah, a small town north of New York City. Davidson is founder and president of the Society for Universal Sacred Music. His great-grandfather and great-uncle founded the oil services company Schlumberger Ltd.


The district attorney said Vickram Bedi, 37, was arraigned Tuesday on a charge of grand larceny. His computer services business in Mount Kisco was also indicted. Bedi pleaded not guilty and was held on $5 million bail.  Read more