A Florida man is accused of stealing the identity of the drummer from Canadian rock band Nickelback and using it to purchase $25,000 worth of microphones.
Lee Howard Koenig, 45, was arrested Tuesday by Port St. Lucie police on two felony fraud-related charges, newspaper TCPalm reported.
According to a police affidavit, Koenig used the identity of Daniel Adair, Nickelback’s drummer, to buy the microphones and send them to a Florida address.
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The case began Jan. 19 when police learned from a band security specialist that Adair “had his identity used to fraudulently order drum parts from a company in Vienna, Austria,” an affidavit said.
A band representative asked Adair to confirm the purchase, and the Canadian drummer said he never placed it. Police managed to track the purchase to Koenig’s Florida IP address, and confirmed that the email address used was not Adair’s.
“Essentially, when he placed the order in Austria, I guess at this level of band… you have a lot of people that work for you,” Griffith said Wednesday. “One of the people in his group thought it was out of the ordinary when they were getting contacted to confirm the order.”
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“He identified himself as Daniel Adair with Nickelback and said that he was looking for some microphones and tried to place an order via an email,” Griffith said. “He said he’s Daniel Adair from Nickelback.”
Police executed a search warrant at Koenig’s home Tuesday. He invoked his rights to have a lawyer present.
This is not the first time Koenig has been in a situation like this. In 2009, he was ordered to spend three years in prison and repay $78,000 he fraudulently collected in 2007.
Law enforcement officials investigated Koenig after a woman learned the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast never received money she gave Koenig for a benefit concert he said he was putting together on behalf of the organization.
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Koenig also pretended to act on behalf of the Indian Riverkeeper advocacy group and sold space for advertisements in concert programs, but never did the work, according to court papers.
He was released from the St. Lucie County Jail Tuesday on a $18,750 bond.
Koenig goes by the name Mr. Wooky in his Facebook profile and describes himself as “an award-winning session and touring drummer working for Sony and Epic.” The page also claims that he has worked with the Beach Boys, Billy Joel and the Saturday Night Live band.
A representative for Nickelback said the band is not commenting on the matter.
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