Pretexting indictment names Belfair private investigators

State and federal agents have broken up a nationwide "pretext" identity-theft scheme in which private eyes from Brooklyn to Houston hired a Washington state firm to illegally obtain personal information from thousands of people — from medical records to tax returns — for law firms and other clients.

Ten people have been indicted by a Seattle federal grand jury in a case U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said is only the second of its kind — the first being the 2005 Hewlett-Packard boardroom spy scandal. The operation was run out of BNT Investigations in Belfair, Mason County. Charged as ringleaders in the alleged scheme are the company's owners, Emilo and Brandy Torrella and their office manager-researcher, Steven Berwick. They were scheduled to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in Tacoma this afternoon.

The Hewlett-Packer case involved attempts to obtain phone records of a few board members to determine who had been leaking information to the media. Sullivan said the Torrellas and Berwick tried to obtain personal information of as many as 12,000 people, many of them involved in bankruptcies, lawsuits, divorces or collection efforts.

The indictment alleges the Torrellas, Berwick and others would pose on the telephone as the person whose information they were trying to obtain. Often, they would use sophisticated software to change the phone number they were dialing from, or devices to disguise their voices.

After calling the Internal Revenue Service or the Social Security Administration, they would manipulate the agency's employees with make-believe emergencies or hardships. In many cases, the were able to obtain copies of actual income-tax returns or wage details. They also obtained medical records, including what prescription drugs someone had been taking.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Frierson said agents are "actively investigating" whether the lawyers and others who sought and paid for the information may also have committed crimes.

Frierson wouldn't identify who those consumers were, but said their identities "are an indication that this is a nationwide and extensive practice."

"How far does the knowledge go up?" she asked. "That is the critical question."

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com