The trial starts Thursday of a down-on-his-luck businessman Norman Glass, who stole another man’s identity and made millions selling his victim’s assets to unsuspecting buyers.

About six months ago Glass cooked up a get-rich-quick scheme after hearing about an American living in the UK, who owned a building lot as well as an apartment on 14^th Street. He began by assuming the identity of the property owner, a man named Kalev. Glass grew a beard and acquired a cane, a cap and the gait of a man 26 years his senior. He then created the documents that would enable Glass to present himself as Kalev. He began spending time outside the latter’s apartment building, where he collected Kalev’s mail and absorbed whatever information he could find. He used a computer to create a high-quality forgery of Kalev’s official identity card using Kalev’s personal information and his own photograph.

 

Next, according to Glass’s charge sheet, he placed an advertisement for Kalev’s apartment on an online classified-ads site, for $450,000. He also listed the lot with real estate agents and asked a prominent law firm to help him dispose of the property. At that point Glass also announced that he also had an apartment he wanted to sell. A man who is identified in Glass’s indictment only as D went for the bait. He was nearing retirement after working for the past 40 years at an engineering company where he was on the staff of a missile project. D and his wife met Glass at the upscale law office. There, in the presence of attorneys and real estate agents, a contract was signed. No one knew that Glass was not Kalev, the property’s real owner.

 

D agreed to give Glass 90 percent of the payment as soon as the property deed was assigned to him, and to pay the balance after the property development fees were paid.

The next day, Glass went alone to the Registry Office, carrying Kalev’s ID card and copies of the notarial seals used the previous day on the deed of sale: Glass had had them duplicated at a stationery store. No one at the registry office questioned his credentials, and he registered the lot to D and his wife. Afterward, as promised, D paid Glass from his retirement savings, in cash.

 

A week or so later, as D waited for Glass to call and tell him the sale was completed, the near-retiree instead got a call from Superintendent Ross of the police fraud unit. Ross summoned D and his wife to unit headquarters where he told them: "We think you are victims of a sting. You purchased a lot from a con artist who impersonated Kalev," Ross explained. In addition, the real Kalev filed a police complaint over the theft of the property. D and his wife were overwhelmed. "I felt as if my world had crashed around me. After 40 years of work, that was all the money I had and suddenly they tell me I’m left with nothing. They asked me to point out the man in the picture and all at once many things became clear. I am simply lost," said D.

 

Glass, the police say, made one fatal error in his perfect sting: Somehow, one of the documents he gave the lawyers contained his real name. Fraud squad detectives created a sting of their own, stringing him along and arranging for a meeting at the law office, where he was arrested. In a search of Glass’s home after his arrest, police officers found the cap, the cane and eyeglasses he wore to the contract-signing at the lawyers’ office.

Glass denied any connection to the affair and claimed that someone framed him. The police have not found the money that D paid Glass, who owns no property that could be seized in order to repay D.

 

I have suffered a dramatic change. I have had to move from “spending” to “not spending”. I built my personal financial system carefully over years and years of spending money, sometimes cautiously, sometimes rashly and sometimes wildly. At all times I planned, saved and budgeted, always keeping spending directly linked to earning. Now I’m in a “hold spending” period. I saved hundreds of dollars in 2011 by getting some good deals on financial products. You can do it too.

 

Years ago I fell into the habit of accompanying my wife on her trips to the supermarket. These outings ranged from ‘totally boring’ to ‘mildly interesting’ until I discovered that there’s a man’s world in the supermarket. I discovered the 10 varieties of olives, the 20 varieties of pickles and the carousel of fiery hot spices. I found the exotic cheese counter and the cheap tee-shirt rack. I bought what I fancied. My job was great, the salary package was generous and I always had money in the bank.

 

At about 9am one morning I received a phone call from the owner of the company I was managing: “We are closing down. Not enough work, blah, blah, blah… the faltering hi-tech industry, yak, yak, yak… Our shopping trips changed. I still accompany my wife. We go to the supermarket – with a list. We buy the items on the list and come home. Money saved: Considerable.

 

In the good old days when I had a problem with money, my first port of call would be the bank and my friendly bank manager who would always lean over backwards to help me. That’s gone. These days when I have a problem with money I put as much distance as I can between me and the bank. I’m just another customer and I’ve never met the manager. I changed banks recently, mainly because the bank on Pine Street offered better deals than the bank on Elm Street. If the bank can treat me a casual customer, then I can treat the bank as a casual service.  

 

I had sudden urge to make sure my “papers” were in order in case I got hit by a bus. The results were surprising. Other than stuff like life insurance, pension and savings which I regard as a ‘do not open’ box unless the agent is present, I looked at such fascinating items as household and auto insurance. It’s been years since I received these policies. If you work on the basis of ‘no claims, no look’ as I do, the years slip away. I took them out and called a couple of new acquaintances in the insurance business. Surprise! The trusty old agents I had used all these years were no longer looking after my interests. They were renewing my policies every year without looking at the premiums. I replaced these policies with a new agent and saved huge amounts of money for the same coverage. I also told the new agent that I would be shopping around for new quotations at every renewal date. If the old agents didn’t look after me do I still have to look after them?