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February 15, 2008

Man gets 8 months for extortion, impersonating agent

PROVIDENCE -- A Warwick man has been sentenced to eight months in federal prison for posing as a federal Homeland Security agent to extort $25,000 from a gas station owner of Middle Eastern descent by claiming he could link the owner to terrorists.

George Tabora, 45, also received two months of home confinement and must do 300 hours of community service after he's released from prison in the sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente's office.

Tabora pleaded guilty in September to attempting to obstruct interstate commerce through extortion, and attempting to obtain money by impersonating a federal officer.

Prosecutor Lee H. Vilker said at the plea hearing that the government could prove that Tabora, posing as an officer named Carl Johnson, called the gas station owner last May, asserting he had information linking the owner to terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida. If the gas station owner did not pay him the $25,000, he said he would “go after” his family and put him in jail, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

The gas station owner reported to Warwick police more threatening calls from the man claiming to be Johnson. Each time the caller demanded money in exchange for a file he claimed to have on the station owner.

Warwick police determined that Tabora’s wife worked at the gas station owned by the victim of the crime.

In more phone calls, some monitored by Warwick detectives, Tabora sought money in exchange for the supposed file on the gas station owner. The owner agrees -- at Warwick detectives' direction -- to pay $15,000. Tabora told him to put the money in a drain pipe on a Centerville Road property. Detectives found that the property with the drainpipe is next to Tabora’s home.

Warwick police arranged two packages of "ruse money" on May 16 and had the gas station owner put them into the drainpipe. Police saw Tabora’s teenage son come out of the Tabora home and get the package from the drainpipe. When detectives confronted him, he said his father had asked him to pick up the money.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:48 PM | Permalink

February 15, 2008

Man gets 8 months for extortion, impersonating agent

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