Just an FYI for those of you that were scammed. I know I worked with a number of people here as I had a local contact for the PD in his area. Im not sure if any of you ever got your money back but it looks like they got him, finally.
" 04/20/20 An Iowa City area man who was wanted on two separate felonies from 2017 and 2018 was arrested Sunday night. The Johnson County Sheriff’s office opened an investigation in November 2017 into fraudulent activity involving 63-year-old Clyde Voorhees, then of Video Court in Iowa City. Voorhees was allegedly involved in fraudulent online activity involving the sale of firearms beginning in May of that year. According to the investigation, Voorhees would take the victims’ money for the purchase of firearms or rifle scopes from an online seller. They would send him payments by check or money order, but the victims never received the item or items he agreed to purchase for them. Voorhees would reportedly take the money, deposit the funds into his own bank, and wire funds to Nigeria or Cameroon to launder them. Under Miranda, Voorhees admitted to the allegations. Financial records corroborated the statements, and it’s alleged that at least seven victims were fleeced of a total of nearly $7000. Then in March of 2018, a cybertip from Facebook was reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, saying that a pornographic image of a child had been uploaded to Facebook. A search of the IP address led investigators to Voorhees’ residence. A search warrant was executed with Voorhees present, and under Miranda ,he allegedly admitted to uploading the child pornography. He also admitted to possessing additional videos and images of the same nature on his cellphone. An arrest warrant was requested in both cases, and Voorhees was booked into the Johnson County Jail at 11:22pm Saturday. He’s charged with Sexual Exploitation of Children, a Class D felony, and Money Laundering, a Class C felony. If convicted on both charges, he could be sentenced to up to fifteen years in prison."
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I gave the police a lot of details and greatly appreciate warpig helping out by providing contact info and making this post. Good to know it came to something. I'm sorry it took so long and especially sorry to hear of the child porn. Thanks again warpig.
Additional Information (4-20-2020 afternoon): Voorhees is indeed in the Johnson County Jail...for the moment. I spoke with jail staff there (did the cop-speak thing) and he'll probably be released soon due to the current Covid-19 protocols. While that is disappointing we must remember that he's not in jail accused of major crimes. (NOTE: While he might not appear in court down the road, this dipshit doesn't have the means to run/hide very far and once apprehended it will result in more sentence guidelines, i.e. prison time).
I also spoke with the Prosecutor's Office there. The Prosecutor assigned to the case is Janet Lyness. Her email address is: jlynessco.johnson.ia.us
IF you have some pertainent information on this guy, (like being ripped off) send her an email with your contact information and what info you have. Remember that due to disclosure rules anything you send will probably be shared with his defense attorney. You can also send an email encouraging her to pursue the case but I suggest you keep it clean. It too, might be shared with the Defense.
You can also send 'ol Clyde a letter! It's probable that it will be RTS back to you but you'll only be out a stamp (they don't forward the mail). Make sure to have complete name/address informaton in the return address as they won't give him mail without it. Do so soon to better the odds of him still being there in a couple days.
Clyde Voorhess P.O. Box 2540 Iowa City, IA 52244
P.S. He has a prior criminal history so he might get some time out of this.
Last edited by MWN; 04/20/20. Reason: update info
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night because rough men stand at the ready to do violence on their behalf.