A 64-year-old gravely ill Prince William County man was bilked out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by a man who opened bank accounts and bought luxury cars in his name, according to court records. The victim, a Gainesville resident identified in court documents as P.C., was a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation retiree recently diagnosed with a terminal illness. He was under 24-hour care by in-home nurse aides.
In the fall, a 27-year-old man in Columbus, Ohio, opened three bank accounts under P.C.’s name using fraudulent identification documents, then transferred more than $500,000 in funds from P.C’s T. Rowe Price account to the newly created bank accounts, according to an affidavit.
Alimamy Barrie was charged with identity fraud in federal court in Alexandria and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. One phone number listed for him was disconnected; no one answered at another number.
It isn’t entirely clear how Barrie obtained P.C.’s account information. The affidavit says Barrie had friends who live in Ohio and Maryland who are nurse aides and P.C.’s daytime caregiver was from Sierra Leone, the country that issued a passport with a fake birth date that Barrie possessed. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria said only that no one else had been charged in the case.
Court documents say Barrie opened a PNC Bank account and two JPMorgan Chase & Co. accounts in P.C.’s name in September and October, and changed the address associated with T. Rowe Price from P.C.’s Gainesville home to Barrie’s residence in Columbus.
He then transferred about $80,000 in checks from P.C.’s legitimate T. Rowe Price account to PNC, the documents say. Barrie also allegedly made nine wire transfers, totaling $476,038, from P.C.’s retirement funds to one of the JPMorgan accounts.
The affidavit also says Barrie used some of that money to buy a Mercedes-Benz, Hummer, Audi and Range Rover from a Hyattsville car dealership. The cars, which cost a total of $127,000, were shipped to Africa, according to the affidavit.
Authorities began investigating the scheme after T. Rowe Price contacted P.C. about the transfers and P.C. told the investment firm that he hadn’t changed his address or moved any funds.
