Checks Bounce High - To $800,000

A well-dressed and charming young man walks into the bank and says he'd like to open a local account and move millions of dollars into it. Only one catch: The money will have to be wired later in the day from his Swiss bank account.

With that assurance, he is issued a batch of starter checks.

By the time the bank realizes it has been duped, days later, the man has used the checks to open phony accounts at other banks in the Puget Sound area and in Vancouver, B.C. Those checks, in turn, are used to obtain merchandise from businesses.

That's how King County prosecutors say Nadder Baron Haghighi, a convicted confidence man from Issaquah, pulled off a monthlong swindle in March.

Deputy Prosecutor Lisa Napoli O'Toole said in court documents filed yesterday that Haghighi, 33, has written more than $800,000 in

checks on accounts in which he never deposited a dime.

He is charged with first-degree theft and related charges and will be arraigned Tuesday in King County Superior Court.

O'Toole said in court papers that Haghighi represented himself to banks as a billionaire businessman who employed 25,000 people in his import/export business, called Zagros International Enterprises, and did more than $18 billion in annual business.

Haghighi allegedly used the checks to open more accounts and purchase a car and other merchandise, O'Toole said, and continued to use the checks well after the phony accounts were closed.

Haghighi, who police said has more than 25 aliases and 12 convictions for similar crimes, even approached Seattle public-broadcasting station KCTS-TV and wrote a March 31 donation check of $250,000. It bounced.

When he allegedly committed the latest series of deceptions, Haghighi was free on an appeal bond as he awaited sentencing after pleading guilty last year to four charges for similar crimes.

Before those guilty pleas, his former attorney applied for county funds so Haghighi could undergo a mental evaluation. "It appears to me that my client is subject to delusion of possessing great wealth, when in fact, he is penniless," wrote the attorney.

Haghighi skipped not only his sentencing but also a pending trial on unrelated but similar phony check charges. He was arrested in Hawaii this month.

O'Toole said that in the latest case Haghighi was able to buy a $17,000 Nissan from a Bellevue dealer by writing a phony $10,000 deposit check. He also allegedly wrote a $26,000 check to buy two collector cars from a Woodinville man who learned the checks were bad before he had released the autos.

Haghighi also allegedly wrote bad checks at Bothell and Issaquah businesses.

O'Toole said Haghighi, who states he has an MBA, opened accounts at banks in Woodinville, Bothell and Tacoma.

Prosecutors have alleged in other cases that Haghighi has masqueraded as a prince from Saudi Arabia or Iran.