It started three years ago when a Minnesota man joined Match.com, a popular online dating service, looking for that certain someone to spice up his life. And it ended in an alleged extortion plot that authorities say cost the man $114,000.
The man, identified in federal court documents only as C.J., began corresponding with people he met through Match.comin early 2006. He also joined AdultFriendFinder.com, a heavily trafficked web site that bills itself as a dating service for swingers and a place to post personals ads. The site claims to have more than 35 million members, including 265,035 in Minnesota.
C.J. eventually began corresponding by e-mail with a woman who called herself "April Shoulders," according to a sworn statement filed by a federal investigator to obtain several seizure warrants in the case. The woman attached some nude pictures, purportedly of herself, to an e-mail she sent to C.J., and allegedly asked him to respond in kind, U.S. Postal Inspector Christopher Andersen said in his affidavit.
C.J. sent the woman four photos of himself, three of which were nudes. That seems to have opened the door to his troubles. Over the next 18 months, he was "randomly contacted online" by other women who said that Shoulders had sent them his nude photos. He struck up several "online relationships" and exchanged e-mails with strong sexual content with at least six e-mail addresses.
C.J. apparently was a soft touch. Andersen said although he never actually met any of the women and never spoke with them by phone or by Internet chat, C.J. voluntarily gave them about $30,000 in cash and gifts that he wired through MoneyGram and Western Union. He did so, he said, "out of generosity for the financial problems" each woman claimed to be having.
But by the end of 2007, Andersen said, C.J. had decided enough was enough, and he told his keyboard pals that he wouldn't be sending any more money. That's when the threats started, he said.
A woman who identified herself as Anita Williams e-mailed him and threatened to publish his nude photos and the sexually explicit e-mails he had been sending, Andersen said. She said she'd send them to specific co-workers in his company, to local newspapers, and to his family members unless he sent more money. She provided names and phone numbers of people he knew so that he'd believer her.
Fearing exposure, C.J. sent about $35,000 to Williams at her direction, often in care of others, Andersen said. Then in February 2008, he said, a person who identified himself as Keith Chase got into the act. Chase, writing from an e-mail address that indicated he was a private investigator, provided photos and e-mails as proof that he knew about C.J.'s secrets. Chase began demanding periodic wire transfers to his bank account, Andersen said.
Records show that from February 2008 to June 2008, C.J. sent 24 wire transfers totalling $114,000 to three different accounts. The investigation revealed that Chase lives in Petersburg, Va. Public records show he is 49 years old. E-mail account records, together with public records, indicate that Anita Lavon Williams, 47, shares the address with Chase. Investigators also followed some money to another address in Henderson, N.C., where they found a car registered to Chase.
Neither Chase nor Williams could be reached for comment.
Some of C.J.'s money also went to accounts in the names of Jamilla and Jamie L. Hester Jr., according to Andersen's affidavit.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Jamie Hester Sr., who owns an auto repair shop in Henderson, N.C., said that Anita Williams is the mother of Jamilla and Jamie Jr. But Hester Sr. said he hadn't seen her in 25 or 30 years and has lost touch with both her and the children. Public records indicate Jamilla, 23, lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. The phone listed in her name has been disconnected, however.
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors in Minnesota filed a single wire fraud charge against Williams. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison unless the crime involves a financial institution, in which case it's 30 years. The charging document used in Williams' case is called a felony information, indicating that a plea bargain is in the works. A search of federal court records found no charges against Chase, Jamilla Hester, or Jamie Hester Jr.
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