A man authorities call a "very sophisticated con man," now being held in San Diego in a $3 million fraud case, was indicted here yesterday on charges that he defrauded two Hawai'i banks of $130,000 in 2007 and 2008.

Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter said the defendant was known here as Tyler Adams and Kevin Kennedy but has used multiple other aliases and has even "used cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance."

Adams, 37, formed five fictitious businesses here in 2007-2008 and used a "check-kiting scheme" to defraud American Savings Bank and Bank of Hawaii, Van Marter said.

He also stole a $6,000 diamond ring from Costco, according to the prosecutor.

As authorities were closing in on him, Adams and his Russian-born wife fled to China, returning in recent weeks to Los Angeles, where he was arrested and charged in the San Diego mortgage fraud case, said Van Marter.

During his time here, Adams lived in a beachfront Kähala condominium and drove "a fancy sports car," the prosecutor said.

Adams was born Kevin Schoolcraft in Pennsylvania, legally changed his name twice in different states and has also been known as Joshua Smith, Taylor Chase, Lance Irwin and Michael Wittman, Van Marter said.

"He's a con man, a sociopath with no regard for those affected by his criminal activities," the prosecutor said.

A search of his condo here yielded hundreds of phony checks, as well as false law school identity cards from the University of Hawai'i and Yale University, the prosecutor said.

Adams was "able to scam a number of sophisticated banking officials" here and even worked his con at the same bank three different times — in October and December of 2007 and again in June 2008, according to Van Marter.