News Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Rhode Island
February 15, 2008
Warwick man is sentenced for extorting a gas station owner with false terrorism links
A federal judge has sentenced George Tabora, 45, of Warwick, to eight months in prison, followed by two months home confinement, for posing as a federal officer in an attempt to extort money from a Warwick gas station owner. Tabora falsely claimed that he could link the gas station owner to Islamic terrorists.
United States Attorney Robert Clark Corrente announced the sentence, which U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith imposed yesterday in U.S. District Court, Providence. Tabora must perform 300 hours of community service after he is released from prison.
Tabora pleaded guilty in September to attempting to obstruct interstate commerce through extortion, and attempting to obtain money by impersonating a federal officer. At the plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee H. Vilker said the government could prove that Tabora, posing as a Homeland Security Officer named Carl Johnson, called the gas station owner in May, claiming he had information linking the gas station owner to terrorist organizations, including al-Qa’ida. He demanded $25,000, and said if the victim didn’t pay him, he would “go after” his family and put him in jail.
Subsequently, the gas station owner, who is of Middle Eastern descent, reported to Warwick Police additional threatening calls from the man purporting to be Johnson. Each time the caller falsely linked the gas station owner to terrorists, and demanded money in exchange for a file he purported to have on the victim. The Warwick Police investigation determined that Tabora’s wife worked at the gas station that the victim owned.
During additional telephone calls, some of them monitored by Warwick detectives, Tabora continued to demand money in exchange for the “file” on the gas station owner. At the direction of Warwick detectives, the victim agreed to pay $15,000, and Tabora told him to put the money into a drain pipe located on property on Centerville Road. Detectives determined that the property with the drainpipe is adjacent to Tabora’s home.
On May 16, Warwick Police arranged two packages of ruse money, purportedly totaling $15,000, and had the victim place them into the drainpipe. They then saw Tabora’s teenage son emerge from the Tabora home and retrieve the package from the drainpipe. When confronted by detectives, he told them that his father had asked him to pick up the money.
Warwick Police arrested George Tabora, and he admitted having made the threatening calls. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents subsequently determined that there is no Homeland Security agent named Carl Johnson and that Tabora had never been employed by the Department of Homeland Security.
“This should be a warning to anyone who thinks they can impersonate an ICE officer and get away with it," said Bruce M. Foucart, special agent-in-charge of ICE’s Office of Investigations in Boston. "The public should have absolute faith that ICE officers are performing legitimate federal law enforcement duties.”
Tabora must report to prison on March 10.