A 45-year-old man who allegedly posed as a priest and deposited checks as part of a check kiting scheme was arraigned this afternoon and held on high bail, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.

KOFFI GBIKPI (D.O.B. 8/6/65) of Brookline was arraigned this afternoon in the Boston Municipal Court and charged with one count of uttering a false instrument to wit: a check and one count of forgery of a check for a Dec. 20 incident during which he allegedly deposited three fraudulent checks totaling $18,000 into an account at the Boston Private Bank from accounts from two different banks.

Assistant District Attorney Kate Clayman requested that the defendant be held on $150,000 cash bail; Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons set bail in the amount of $50,000 and ordered that should the defendant post bail, he surrender his passport.

Clayman told the court that an investigation conducted by detectives in the Boston Police Special Investigations Unit suggests that Gbikpi posed as a priest and allegedly opened bank accounts, at times using fake church or religious organization names, at banks across the Commonwealth as part of a check kiting scheme. To perpetrate the scheme, Gbikpi allegedly took starter checks from one bank account, wrote checks in large dollar amounts, and then deposited them in into new bank accounts that he had opened. He would then allegedly withdraw thousands of dollars from those accounts, which had no real funds, before the check was returned to the bank for insufficient funds.

On Dec. 20, Gbikpi deposited three checks in the amounts of $6,000, $2,000, and $10,000 from Citizen’s Bank and TD Bank. Neither of those accounts had funds. Gbikpi was arrested this morning in Post Office Square after Boston Police detectives were notified that he had returned to the Boston Private Bank this morning allegedly to take out a loan.

The defendant is represented by attorney Amy Jo Freedman and is due to return to court on Jan. 14, 2011.