Chappaqua NY Couple Arrested in $6 Million Extortion Scheme | Chappaqua NY Homes

Chappaqua pair charged in $6 million extortion scheme

 WHITE PLAINS – A Chappaqua couple is accused of
extorting at least $6 million from a pianist who is
heir to a fortune through his family’s multinational
oil field company.

In a bizarre plot that allegedly spanned six years,
Vickram Bedi and Helga Invarsdottir, who run a
technology business in Mount Kisco, convinced the
victim that his computer had been hacked by foreign
nationals and that his and his family’s lives were in
danger.

The couple, arrested Thursday as they were
preparing to leave the country, are being held on $3
million bail.

“These two defendants preyed upon, duped and
exploited the fears of this victim with cold
calculations and callousness,” said Westchester
District Attorney Janet DiFiore. “The systematic
method with which they continued the larceny over
a period of more than six years is nothing short of
heartless.”

The victim, Roger Davidson, is 58 and the founder
of Soundbrush Records.

The alleged scheme started in August 2004, when
Davidson’s computer developed a virus and he took
it to the couple’s company, Datalink Computer
Services, for repairs.

The victim is the great-grandson and great-grand-
nephew of the two brothers who founded
Schlumberger Ltd., a Fortune 500 company
headquartered in Houston with offices in Paris,
France and the Hague.

He was concerned that the documents, photos and,
more importantly, the music he had written and
stored on the computer could be lost, DiFiore said.

Bedi, 36, allegedly convinced the victim that the
virus was so bad that it damaged Datalink’s
computers.

“Bedi told the victim that he had the facility, the
contacts and the means of tracking down the source
of this virus that specifically targeted the victim’s
computer and that he and his family were in grave
danger,” DiFiore said. “As a result, Bedi convinced
 the victim to not only begin paying for computer
data retrieval and security, but also to begin paying
for necessary personal physical protection.”

He later allegedly told the victim he tracked the
source to a remote village in Honduras and had his
uncle — an officer in the Indian military — pick up
the hard drive of a computer that was the source of
the virus, in a military aircraft. He said his uncle
discovered that Polish priests affiliated with Opus
Dei were threatening to harm the victim. He also
said the Central Intelligence Agency had
subcontracted with Bedi to work to prevent the
Polish priests from infiltrating the U.S. government.

Helga Ingvarsdottir, 39, an Icelandic national, and
Bedi had been charging the victim’s American
Express card $160,000 every month since 2004,
and were also receiving funds for physical
protection of the family, Harrison police Chief
Anthony Marraccini said, adding that this was
discovered during a search of the Mount Kisco
business.

“We can account for $20,000,000 being paid,”
Marraccini said.

Davidson even made Bedi a trustee of a $60 million
family trust meant to benefit Davidson and his
children, according to a civil case the two men filed
last year . Much of the trust’s assets were invested
with Wachovia Securities, and the two men sued
Wachovia, alleging that the trust lost millions of
dollars because Wachovia’s brokers had gone
forward with risky investments.

Journal News Article

Chappaqua NY Homes

Chappaqua Luxury Homes