DA: Hungarian couple held as badda pests who swindled eBay users with phony vehicle deals

Somodi (l) and Lendvai A pair of Hungarians living at the Buckminster Hotel who allegedly managed to swindle eBay visitors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars were ordered without bail until Roxbury District Court can find a Hungarian interpreter, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Zsold Lendvai and Eniko Somodi's scheme, which involved advertising a goulash of vehicles from cars to bulldozers, began to unravel when somebody noticed his car for sale on eBay and contacted Boston Police, the DA's office says. BPD began surveillance and notified local banks to beware of people attempting to use Greek or Portuguese passports as IDs to open accounts, from which money would then be wired to overseas accounts.

Prosecutors, who asked for bail of $1 million each, say Lendvai used a fake Greek passport yesterday to open an account at the Sovereign Bank in Kenmore Square and accept a $24,900 payment from a Missouri man for a non-existent Caterpillar bulldozer. Alert bank employees notified police, who arrived and arrested him:

At the time of his arrest, he was carrying four passports from Greece and Portugal, all counterfeit, all with different names, and all containing his picture.

He was also carrying a key to a room at the nearby Buckminster, where police set up shop and arrested Somodi:

At the time of her arrest, she was carrying three counterfeit Greek passports and three Greek driver’s licenses, all with her picture. A search of the hotel room led to the recovery of yet more passports, a computer, and multiple documents related to wire transfers believed to be linked to the scam.

Innocent, etc.