FBI Busts Man Duped In Facebook Ploy

FBI Busts Man Duped In Facebook Ploy

Former wife posed as 17-year-old in online scheme


JUNE 7--Embroiled in a contentious child custody fight, an Indiana woman decided last month to pose on Facebook as a comely teenage girl in a bid to surreptitiously extract damaging information from her ex-husband.
The scheme proved so successful, in fact, that FBI agents last Friday arrested Angela Voelkert’s former spouse on a felony charge for allegedly installing a listening device in her vehicle, according to court records.
Voelkert’s Facebook plot--detailed by FBI Agent Robert Dane in a sworn affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in South Bend--began in late-May when she opened a Facebook account in the name of “Jessica Studebaker.”
The purported 17-year-old’s profile--which remains online, but locked--includes the photo of “Studebaker” seen at right. The true identity of the girl seen in the photo is unknown, nor is it clear where Voelkert got the image.
Voelkert, 29, used the bogus Facebook profile to “friend” her former husband David, 38. Angela Voelkert then asked a pal to e-mail her former spouse through the Facebook account since she was concerned that he might recognize her “style of writing.” Voelkert though, Dane noted, “monitored the emails on ‘Jessica Studebaker’s’ Facebook account.”
Within days of becoming friends, David Voelkert began exchanging Facebook messages with “Studebaker,” telling the teen about his children and Angela. On May 26, Voelkert wrote that he had sold his business and “planned to move somewhere warm with his kids, that he was still going to his next court dates, and would take off soon after.”
Voelkert, the affidavit notes, runs a South Bend business that sells and installs sophisticated video and audio equipment, and counts police departments among its customers. A check of Voelkert’s Facebook page this afternoon shows that “Studebaker” remains among his 153 friends.
In a May 31 Facebook message, Voelkert, pictured at left, told “Studebaker” that he had secretly installed a GPS tracker in his wife’s van and was using the device to monitor her movements. He “went on to discuss what kind of trouble that they could get in for doing this,” and asked the teenager to “delete the message so there is no trace of talking about it,” Dane reported.
Along with disclosing that he planned to flee with his children in early-June, Voelkert wrote that he was “going to find someone to take care of her and now it will be easier because I know where she is at all times.” He then added, “you should find someone at your school, there should be some gang bangers there that would put a cap in her ass for $10,000. I am just done with her crap!”
In a subsequent message, Voelkert stated, “With me gone with my kids, the police can’t pin anything on me as I will be in another state, so I will be fine.” Voelkert has not been charged with plotting to harm his wife.
Busted Friday, Voelkert appeared yesterday in federal court, where a judge scheduled a detention hearing for this Thursday. Since he is locked up in the St. Joseph County Jail, Voelkert will have to seek to reschedule a Superior Court hearing scheduled for tomorrow in his child custody case.

I loved this article....I can think of many interesting things I'd like to find out using this technique......I'll bet Huma wishes she thought of testing her husband's fidelity with this technique before she married the weiner.....HA! HA! HA! HA!

Wow. She is pretty thought

Nope. It was a setup within a setup. The feds dropped the charges. See the husband's prior affidavit below. TFF.

I am seriously glad I am not a divorce attorney. It is way too messy and personal. That being said, anyone want to share any stories about messy divorces?





And Selena, you've got way better curves. I mean, you rock that white chemise.

Nutz!!!

The affidavit thing is kind of odd, too. I mean what does this really do for the guy?

Note the timing/sequence of events in the affidavit is vague. I'd bet the guy was duped...played/chatted/messaged/whatever the kids are calling it these days with her...sobered up (literally and/or figuratively)...realized he was duped & decided to execute this statement.

My question though: What are the broader implications of the document for the rest of us if a court finds this guys "investigative" method is solid? Say some sort of TGTBT "offer," sexual in nature or otherwise, is presented to an individual. One one hand he thinks something is a little off about it; on the other he doesn't want to miss out if it is genuine. Can he sign a statement saying he thinks the whole thing is a ruse but he is just playing along and the incriminating statements he made were just to gain the trust of the other party and have the document serve as his "get out of jail free card?" Afterall, he's just a doing his civic duty and trying to bring down a scammer....

Nope. It was a setup within a setup. The feds dropped the charges. See the husband's prior affidavit below. TFF.
Originally Posted by Karl Hungus

A set-up within a set-up? How does this work and how far down can this scheme go?

Seems complicated as hell to pull it off and to remember exactly what your lines are and what marks you are supposed to hit!

. . . And with no dress rehearsals, it seems you are bound to fuck it up!

It was good enough for the Feds. They dismissed the complaint. The question in my mind, however, is did this guy get deflowered (or worse) at the fed detention center. If so, it was a pretty poor gambit and the wife clearly won. However, I am guessing the divorce judge is going to get the point that neither party here is a real winner--and maybe that was the strategy, which is really fucking sad. If you are going to fight, don't fight stupid.

The man and his wife had a pending court date on 8 June. The man suspected the new Facebook friend was his wife and swore an affidavit, 25 May (2 wks before the court date), to that affect. In his affidavit he claimed that he suspected his wife was trying to set him up, and that it would be his purpose to use Facebook to turn the tables on his wife. He made it clear that any evidence that his wife subsequently claimed to garner through Facebook would, in fact, be lies told by him in order to expose his wife's plot to ensnare him.

His wife tripped the snare when she reported to the authorities that she had evidence that her husband was planning to have her killed. Since there was no actual murder plot, she instead exposed her own plot to intrude on and continue to disrupt her husband's life - which her husband then used, or plans to use, in court to obtain a more favorable settlement.

"Suspecting it was [the wife] all along, [the husband] had gotten a notarized affidavit shortly after Jessica came online. In it, he said that he believed this was not a real person but rather his ex-wife or someone she knows. He said he was engaging with this person and lying in order to gain proof that his ex-wife was tampering with his personal life, proof he would then use himself in court. "In no way do I have plans to leave with my children or do any harm to [the wife] or anyone else," he wrote above the Indiana notary's stamp. He then kept one copy and gave another to a relative for backup.


"The timeline worked, his affidavit coming days before he said anything incriminating. The notary was interviewed, the document authenticated, and his case was dismissed. Situations like this are why the phrase "Oh, snap!" was invented."


http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/06/10/...llnation-yahoo

Interesting! Hmmmmmm ....

Seriously sounds like some tricky business to me... so glad I am not getting married (or divorced) anytime soon!