Indian businessman defrauds US musician of $20 mn

NEW YORK: An Indian businessman here has been charged with duping a renowned musician of USD 20 million over a period of six years by fabricating stories that the music composer was under threat from members of a conservative Catholic organisation Opus Dei and the CIA.

Vickram Bedi, 37, pleaded not guilty to the grand larceny charges at his arraignment yesterday, Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore said.

Held on a five million dollar bail, Bedi faces up to 25 years in prison.

According to the indictment, Bedi defrauded noted pianist and composer Roger Davidson of 20 million dollars beginning in 2004.

His great-grandfather and great-uncle founded the oil services company Schlumberger Ltd., headquartered in Houston, Texas.

"This defendant preyed upon, duped and exploited the fears of this victim with cold calculation and callousness," DiFiore said.

"The systematic method with which the defendant continued the larceny over a six year period along with the sizable amount of money taken is nothing short of heartless." he said.

The scam began when Davidson approached Bedi's city-based Datalink Computer Products to have his computer repaired after he feared a virus could damage his documents, photos and the music he had written and had stored on the equipment.

Bedi told Davidson that the virus was so harmful that it had also damaged Datalink's computers.

Bedi concocted a story that he had tracked down the source of the computer virus to a remote village in Honduras.