3 charged with 'pretexting'

(Editor's Note: This story has been change since it was intially published. Belfair is in Mason County, not Kitsap County as the earlier version of the story indicated.)

Federal agents Thursday arrested three people connected with a Belfair private investigation firm who are accused of gathering confidential information on individuals through trickery by calling the offices of such agencies as the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration.

Federal investigators say they uncovered schemes in which a caller to a government agency, hospital or other office would pretend to be another person, then ask for that person's income tax return, medical records or other confidential information.

Charged in a multicount indictment with what has become known as "pretexting" are Emilio and Brandy Torrella and Steven Berwick, all associated with BNT Investigations. The indictment is only the second time federal charges have been brought against accused pretexters, according to U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan of Seattle.

Among the charges faced by the three from the Mason County private investigation firm are conspiracy, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The first such charges were brought in California in the high-profile case of the Hewlett-Packard corporate board's starting a leak investigation in which a private investigator used pretexting to gather information about journalists who may have received confidential information from the board. One private investigator pleaded guilty in January to federal charges of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy.

In this case, law firms, collections agencies and estranged spouses involved in divorces hired private investigators, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Katheryn Frierson. Frierson would not reveal the names of the firms or further identify them, saying the matter was still under investigation.

Frierson said the BNT private eyes leveraged information such as Social Security numbers and dates of birth of other people to lend them credence when they assumed the identities of their victims during pretexting telephone calls. Frierson said they might pretend to have a kidnapped child or be a battered spouse to get the information they wanted. "Anything that would embarrass or work on the good will" of the agencies to get them to turn over information, she said.

Sullivan warned the people who hired the private investigators that "we want them to understand that this is a crime."

He added that "we will take (the investigation) wherever it goes."

Frierson, in response to a question at a Thursday morning news conference, said any illegally obtained information that was used by attorneys or litigants in a civil lawsuit could potentially affect the course of that suit.

Special Agent in Charge Ron Legan of the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General said the pretexting came to light about a year ago when a state Department of Labor employee received repeated inquiries about the same person.

In addition to the three Belfair residents, seven private investigators from places such as Texas, New York and Oregon were indicted by a Seattle federal grand jury for their alleged involvement in the use of pretexting to obtain confidential information on more than 12,000 people around the nation.

The Belfair residents pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma and were released pending a trial Feb. 11.