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(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4297321&forum_id=2#38491767)

Kazem Iravani, 50, disappeared in October 1994 on the second day of his trial on six counts of uttering, three counts of issuing bad checks and three counts of obtaining money under false pretense. Authorities found him in California last month, and he was extradited to Loudoun.

Iravani allegedly used a complex scheme involving several aliases, phony businesses, unwitting intermediaries and counterfeit checks to buy two horses and horse-related equipment valued at more than $20,000 from Middleburg area businesses for his daughter. Prosecutors say Iravani had a false cashier's check duplicated and cashed and deposited the money in a legitimate bank account.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1996/11/02/ex-world-bank-official-pleads-guilty

MAN ACCUSED OF SWINDLING PHOTO STORE OUT OF $39,000

The order for $39,000 worth of photographic equipment wasn't particularly unusual. Neither was the man who hauled the items away from a downtown business in a Lincoln Town Car with diplomatic license plates.

The problem arose when the store's owner discovered a check used to pay for the order was worthless. He called Hampton police. The buyer was arrested in Washington, D.C., Thursday.

Kazem Iravani, a naturalized U.S. citizen who claims to be of Iranian extraction, is being held in jail in Washington on a fugitive warrant charging him with larceny by false pretenses, Hampton police spokesman Sgt. Craig Michael said.

Iravani is accused of swindling John Wilt, owner of Camera City Inc., 101 S. Armistead Ave., of $39,000 worth of professional cameras and accessories Thursday.

Police said Wilt helped crack the fraud case when he questioned the validity of one of the two checks used to pay for the order. He then warned other businesses and called police.

Wilt noted that one of the checks had been certified by a bank that had not issued the check. He called the bank and ''found that the account was overdrawn and no fund existed to cover the checks he had,'' Michael said.

''If he had not noticed that discrepancy and had taken the time to call us in Washington, D.C., we could have all been taken,'' said Jody Horvath, manager of Protech Inc. a professional photographic supply store in Alexandria.

The checks were drawn on American Security Bank, but the one certified check carried the name Chevy Chase Federal Savings.

Metro D.C. Detective Joe Newman, a fraud investigator, said Iravani has been linked with several similar flimflams that swindled businesses between Virginia and Connecticut. ''We're talking close to $100,000 worth of property'' already seized, Newman said.

''The man is fantastic,'' he said of the alleged con game.

Iravani and accomplices allegedly arranged to buy expensive cameras with certified bank checks drawn on accounts with no balances.

The caper came to an end Thursday evening when the owner of a Washington store agreed to deliver an order to the Embassy Row Hotel.

Newman was one of a dozen detectives who stormed a room at the hotel and arrested Iravani. Officers seized bogus cashiers' checks, $11,000 in cash, assorted photographic equipment and 17 different identification cards, police said.

Iravani had nine Virginia driver's licenses, each bearing a different name. Newman said Iravani identified himself to police as Gary Becks - the same name he used when he visited Wilt's business Thursday morning to pick up the camera equipment and in dealing with other photographic supply houses in Northern Virginia and Washington.

Most of the licenses listed a Northern Virginia address, Newman said.

Metro Police traced the diplomatic tags on the Town Car to the Egyptian Embassy. The tags had been reported stolen from a car registered to the embassy, Newman said.

He said Iravani, 46, told police ''a homeless man sold him the tags.''

Wilt said he contacted Protech in Alexandria immediately after he realized he may have been swindled by a smooth-talking, businesslike man driving a car with diplomatic plates. Protech sells the same type of professional cameras and equipment as Camera City.

Horvath said the store's owner then ''called about a dozen other camera stores in the area and found there were at least four involved in the same scam.''

Wilt recalled a telephone call in February from a man who wanted ''to know if we were interested in bidding a list of photographic equipment.''

Wilt said he received a list of the items, then got a call from another man who identified himself Bill Spidel, ''an expediter for Art and Photograph Consultants in Washington, D.C.''

Spidel called again in late March with the final arrangements for purchase.

''He was slick, very smooth,'' Wilt said.

Wilt said the man claimed to be a broker ''interested in procuring some equipment for different embassies. They always stressed that point.''

Wilt said he wasn't impressed by the diplomatic plates. ''It probably made their story a little more believable.''

D.C. Metro Police hope to unravel more about the caper, including the intended destination of the property.

''Everything is bogus about him except his real name,'' Newman said.

https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19920418-1992-04-18-9204180028-story.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4297321&forum_id=2#38491818)