Federal fraud charges for His Excellency of South Philly
A South Philadelphia man who made a name for himself by making up names (and bizarre titles) for himself has been stripped down to the name he was born with.
A South Philadelphia man who made a name for himself by making up names (and bizarre titles) for himself has been stripped down to the name he was born with.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan has announced that His Excellency Dr. Brandon Jones-McGeer, the Commissioner for Burns and Head of Delegation, is actually just Brandon Jones.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Jones purported to be the head of a fake organization, the Office of the Commissioner, that aimed to promote "peace and security." Jones had managed to become a regular face at the United Nations.
"But, as alleged, all that Jones was really promoting was a fraud scheme to obtain goods and services for himself through fake government purchase orders and travel requests," Bharara said in a statement last week.
Jones grew up in public housing near Ritner Street in South Philadelphia and was badly burned in a bathtub as a child. He made his own story up from there, becoming an advocate for burn victims, the self-titled "Commissioner for Burns."
In a 2013 interview with the Daily News, Jones said his name was Brandon Jones-McGeer, and claimed to have budgets in the "billions," despite having numerous judgments against him and business owners trying to recoup losses on everything from flags he made to private jet flights he talked his way onto.
"It's impossible for people to believe someone like me can have such a job," Jones said at the time.
Recently, Jones added "Dr." to his appellations and has continued to issue news releases and statements on a variety of issues on his website, including the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and his own incarceration in Rikers Island, something he said was an "undercover" investigation into jail conditions.
Jones could be adding "federal inmate" to his titles if convicted of impersonating a federal employee, wire fraud, and "passing fictitious government obligations."
His latest arrest was a result of a U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigation. Authorities allege that Jones, beginning in at latest November 2015, used his myriad fake titles to give phony purchase orders and obtain government travel requests to businesses in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars' worth of products and services.
He received $60,000 worth of electronics, according to the federal complaint, and in March allegedly tried to use a "government travel request" several times to get airline tickets at LaGuardia Airport. He was arrested by Port Authority police and was sent to Rikers. He pleaded guilty to petty larceny, according to the complaint.
Jones was arrested again on Thursday in Manhattan and charged federally. He could face up to 60 years in prison if convicted.
One of Jones' "Deputy Commissioners," Sandra Zongo, was charged last year with impersonating a federal employee and similar charges after an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service.
An Atlantic City activist, Steven Young, is listed as the "Assistant Commissioner for Health & Human Services" for Jones' organization on his website. Young did not return requests for comment Tuesday.
In 2013, several people who knew Jones expressed sympathy for him, saying he wasn't getting rich with his schemes and often delivered some of the goods he'd promised to fire departments and burn victims. He just usually didn't pay for them.
"I don't think anything he ever told me was true," one disgruntled businessman said of Jones at the time. "He put me on hold one time because he said he had a call coming in from Hillary Clinton."
Jones was arrested in Philadelphia in 2014 on a warrant from Atlantic County for allegedly bringing a rental car with Pennsylvania tags to New Jersey, knowing that it had been reported stolen.
He was arrested in Chester in July of 2013 on similar charges involving a rental car.
"It's not about being rich and famous, it's not about a status for me," Jones said in 2013. "It's about doing something my mother would have expected of me."
He talked of growing up in Chestnut Hill and being reared by Jacqueline McGeer, whom he called his adoptive mother. Members of the McGeer family contacted the Daily News after the story, and said their mother never adopted Jones. They contended he had no claim to their last name.
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