The elaborate plan that netted Vickram Bedi and his girlfriend Helga Invarsdottir more than $20 million over a six-year period will likely land both of them in jail.
Bedi, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of grand larceny, a felony, a little more than two years after he was arrested by Harrison police while trying to flee the country, the Westchester District Attorney's office announced Wednesday. Invarsdottir, 41, pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the first and second degree in December 2010.
The couple was arrested in November 2010 and accused of extorting the money from Katonah resident Roger Davidson between 2004 and 2010. Bedi and Invarsdottir targeted Davidson, a pianist and composer, when Davidson brought his computer to Data link Computer Products, Inc. a computer service business located in Mt. Kisco. Davidson had developed a virus in his computer and feared his music and other works would be lost.
For six years the couple told Davidson his computer had been specifically targeted. Bedi and Invarsdottir created far-fetched scenarios including lies about CIA connections, reconnaissance missions to Honduras and Polish priests attempting to infiltrate the U.S. Government, police said.
Davidson, who is the great-grandson and great grand-nephew of the two brothers who founded Schlumberger Ltd, an oil field services company, shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time fearing he and his family was in danger.
“This defendant, over a six-year period, preyed upon, schemed and manipulated his victim in ways that epitomize a cold, calculating con man,” District Attorney Janet DiFiore said in a statement Wednesday. “The systematic method with which the defendant continued the larceny over a period of years, along with the sizable amount of money that was stolen, was nothing short of Machiavellian.”
Harrison police became involved in late August 2010 when two Purchase residents reported finding GPS devices attached to their vehicle. Davidson was monitoring the residents because he believed they were associated with the international group out to get him, according to police.
Police launched an investigation, and arrested Bedi and Invarsdottir on Nov. 4, 2010.
Bedi will be sentenced on Jan. 22. He faces a maximum of 8-1/3 to 25 years in prison, according to the DA's office. Ingvarsdottir will be sentenced on Jan. 29.
Click here for more details on Bedi and Ingvarsdottir's arrest in 2010.
