Prosecutors want to swipe left on him once and for all.
A serial romance scammer was busted Thursday for allegedly stealing nearly $300,000 from a “girlfriend” he met on the dating app Bumble — who thought she was sending payments on a Brooklyn dream home, prosecutors said.
Brandon Kiehm, 45 — who was convicted in 2017 of swindling Tinder dates by lying about needing money for cancer treatment — is accused of pulling a similar con on a different app, beginning in 2019, not long after he was released from prison.
Brandon Kiehm, 45, was arrested for another alleged romance scam Thursday. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York PostThis time, the rotten-hearted Romeo told a 44-year-old woman he met on Bumble that he was a Stanford-educated financial professional, and the pair began what she thought was a serious relationship, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.
Kiehm, who went by the fake name Dae Up Lee Kim, even lived with the woman in her apartment for months before he convinced her to send $272,000 to a sham property broker, prosecutors alleged.
The woman first sent a $78,250 cashier’s check to the supposed broker as a payment for a home on Decatur Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant in February 2020. Kiehm then convinced her to wire $86,750 and $107,000 to the broker, prosecutors said.
But the broker turned out to be an associate of Kiehm’s, and the duo ultimately made off with the cash, the DA’s office said.
“He took advantage of their personal relationship for his personal greed,” DA Alvin L. Bragg said at a press conference.
Kiehm conned three women along with a neighbor and his boss out of nearly $50,000 in total in 2015 and 2016. Steven HirschThe heartless scam comes after Kiehm conned at least three other women — including one while he was out on bail — along with a neighbor and his boss out of nearly $50,000 in total in 2015 and 2016.
Kiehm had met one of the dates on Tinder in August 2015, and repeatedly hit her up for cash, saying it was for his sister’s cancer treatment. He eventually talked her into writing him a $14,000 check he promised he would pay back, authorities said.
He also cheated another woman he met on Tinder of $12,000, telling her he needed the funds for his mother, who had breast cancer, officials said at the time.
Kiehm was sentenced to two to six years in prison in December 2017 and served 1 year and 8 months behind bars. In 2018, he sued the city, claiming he was assaulted in jail.
Kiehm met a 44-year-old victim on the dating app Bumble. Diego – stock.adobe.comHe now faces one count of grand larceny, a non-bail eligible charge, in the new case. Kiehm was arraigned on the indictment in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday and released on non-monetary bail.
He declined to comment outside the courtroom.
His alleged accomplice, who wasn’t publicly identified, hasn’t been charged, the DA’s office said.
Bragg said that the investigation remains ongoing and encouraged any other potential victims to reach out to his office.
“A woman thought she was buying a home with her boyfriend, when, allegedly, he stole approximately $272,000 of her hard-earned money,” the DA said in a statement.
“Romance scams are all too common, and our office is here to prosecute egregious conduct like this.”
— Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya






