African scam artists found dead at Jonathan Vilma's condo

MR. PEACHES · 04-01-2009, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Former New York Jet Jonathan Vilma Tuesday found his Long Island condominium in the middle of a double murder investigation, with detectives trying to find out who had access to the home where police suspect two men were shot dead last week for pulling an Internet scam.

Vilma, who plays for the New Orleans Saints and has been trying to sell the $900,000 condo, was in Miami at the time and has not been implicated "in any aspect of this case," said New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly

His lawyer, Michael Tein, said Vilma "was in complete shock that anyone was in the house other than his real estate agent." Vilma has not been at the condo since January 2008, Tein said. He gave police information about people who might have had access to the property.

But a man claiming to be his cousin had access to the residence, located in a gated community in Woodbury, the Eagle Chase condominium complex, and appears to have been there Thursday night, along with several others in two vehicles, police sources said.

That is when, police sources said, Ansu Keita, 32, and Sekou Sakor, 31, Liberian immigrants who shared an apartment in the Bronx, were confronted by their killers.

Nassau police weren't called to the scene until 10 a.m. Friday. Sources there said residents had heard two shots the night before, and when police arrived they smelled bleach at the condo and found evidence someone had been living there. They also found blood, Kelly said.

By then city police had already discovered the two bodies; Keita, found after a witness reported seeing two men dump a body off Canarsie's Paerdegat Bridge, police said, and Sakor, found in a South Ozone Park lot. Each was shot in the head.

And, according to what police told Sakor's family, a note that read "We will be back for the next" was found on his body.

Kelly said it appears the dead men were involved in what is generally called a Nigerian Internet scam, specifically a "black paper scheme."

With black paper found in the condo, and black paper and bleach found in the dead men's Bronx apartment, detectives said the victims scammed the wrong people.

Typically, black paper scam artists dupe victims into believing they have smuggled millions of dollars from overseas, the bills covered in black ink to avoid detection. For a fee, scam artists promise they can buy a bleach-based chemical to wash away the ink.But "the whole thing is a scam," Kelly said, and when the dupes buy their money "it turns out to be construction paper."

Vilma, the NFL's 2004 Defensive Rookie of the Year, was traded to the Saints before the 2008 season after four years with the Jets.

Daniel Edward Rosen and staff writer Carl MacGowan and contributed to this story.

I bet they did not expect their scams to backfire like this!

Anybody else find it strange that they were found in Vilma's house?

African scam artists found dead at Jonathan Vilma's condo

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