OAKLAND — Federal prosecutors have charged an East Bay man with allegedly acquiring $800,000 in schemes that targeted people searching for two of life’s greatest essentials: housing and love.
Barnabas Jime was charged June 1 with a single count of wire fraud, which carries up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Authorities say the investigation started back in July 2022, when the victim of a romance scam reported sending funds to an Emeryville resident named Thomas Kirkpatrick, who apparently took the money and ran.
When federal authorities looked into it, they reportedly discovered that not only did Kirkpatrick not exist, but both his identity and a second name — Patrick Warren — were invented by Jime to perpetrate various fraud schemes. They found that Jime had used the same Emeryville address in a police report and a rental car agreement, and that both the Warren and Kirkpatrick personas used that address too, according to the criminal complaint.
Jime allegedly created six different bank accounts with both faux identities, then used ATMs at Berkeley, Oakland, and Emeryville to withdraw funds from the alleged fraud schemes, authorities say.
The rental schemes involved Jime allegedly offering up properties for rent or lease, then insisting on deposits or advance payments in order to get the deal going. In those instances, the victims reported being cut off from contact almost immediately after wiring funds to the “landlord,” according to the complaint.
While the details of Jime’s alleged romance scam were not detailed in the complaint, such scams are becoming increasingly common in the world of wire fraud. They generally involve someone posing as another person online, finding a lonely victim, and manipulating that victim into sending electronic payments under the guise of providing travel funds or solving a concocted crisis.
United States Secret Service Special Agent Alfonso Speed wrote in the complaint that his agency identified 120 “probable victims” who wired roughly $800,000 to Jime, in transactions that dated back to 2021.
Jime has pleaded not guilty and was released from custody while the case is pending. A trial date has not yet been set.
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