Aspiring Hollywood actor arrested over extortion plots using a BOV account

US federal agents have foiled an alleged extortion plot against five millionaires – including a movie producer – by a wannabe Hollywood actor, indicating a Bank of Valletta account for the funds to be deposited in.

Movie producer Harvey Weinstein was one of the targets in the plot foiled by the FBI, who had allegedly received threatening letters demanding US$13 million or their family members would be killed.

FBI agents arrested Vivek Shah, a 25-year-old wannabe actor, in connection to the investigation and has already been indicted. He faces up to 40 years in prison.

Each extortion letter contained a threat to kill named members of the recipient’s family unless a large sum of money was wired to an offshore bank account.

Investigators said that Shah had a fake driver’s license with the alias “Ray Amin.”

The license was used to rent a mailbox in West Hollywood. The name was used multiple times in “various ways in furtherance of the Scheme,” court documents said.

A man believed to be Shah was seen on video surveillance recordings buying prepaid debit cards. He was also said to have called offshore banks and a mailbox rental service.

Authorities said Shah used public Wi-Fi at various Starbucks outlets and was seen driving to one of the coffee shops, parking his vehicle and then using a laptop computer in the car for long periods.

Several Internet transactions in relation to the scheme came from the Internet Protocol address of one of Shah’s neighbours. Investigators said the homes were close enough that a computer in Shah’s home could access his neighbour’s Internet.

Records showed Shah made several calls to the West Hollywood mailbox facility and to offshore banks using a Google Voice account registered to his alias, Ray Amin. Records for that account show several calls to Bank of Valletta in Malta, Antigua Overseas Bank and to the Mauritius Commercial Bank. The prepaid cards also were used to mail items to those banks, according to court records.

Police learned that Shah left the Los Angeles area and flew to Chicago, where he continued to access the Google account from his parents’ home.

Shah played the unaccredited roles of “Middle Eastern Bank Hostage” in the 2008 film “The Dark Knight” and “Maitre’d” in the 2010 film “Our Family Wedding,” according to his profile on the Internet Movie Database. He also had bit parts in TV shows “Bones” and “Outsourced.”

The other victims are also well known millionaires, including coal magnate Chris Cline from West Virginia.

Forbes Magazine listed Cline as being worth about US$1.5 billion in March, and has been a noted player on West Virginia’s political and social scene as a donor and host.

Cline expressed gratitude to the FBI for thwarting the extortion plot, who released a message through his lawyer. “Chris is just very grateful to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office here in West Virginia for promptly and thoroughly investigating this matter,” Lawyer Brian Glasser said.