SOMERSET — Six years ago, Eric Skys wasn’t a computer genius or multimillionaire.

Known by the name of Eric Smith, he lived in a ramshackle studio apartment in downtown Riverside, Calif., where he tinkered with developing video games and often drove to neighboring Moreno Valley to borrow money from his mother, his former fiancee revealed.

“He never had all the money he claimed to have – definitely not when I was with him,” said Crystal Eckhart, 27, of Mira Loma, Calif. She is the mother of Skys’ child.

“If he had all that money, we’d have been living in a better place,” Eckhart said. “I remember he’d actually have to ask his mom for money now and then.”

Skys, 25, of Somerset Township, who claims to be worth $388 million, remains in Cambria County Prison awaiting transport to New York by U.S. marshals on FBI charges that he tried to defraud banks out of millions of dollars.

“He was a really good con man – until he got caught,” said Eckhart’s younger sister, Heather, also of Mira Loma. “Anything he would tell me, I wouldn’t believe.

“He kind of wants to be God,” she said. “He wants a bunch of followers to believe in him or let him do what he wants. He really wanted to control and manipulate their lives.”

Crystal Eckhart said she ended her relationship with Skys after he was arrested for domestic battery on April 8, 2002. She said he has never met his daughter.

Skys has been wanted on a bench warrant issued by a Riverside judge after his probation was revoked in that case, court records show.

As part of his guilty plea, Skys was placed on probation for three years and ordered to enroll in a yearlong domestic violence/batterers program and complete anger-management counseling.

The reason for the revocation was not immediately clear.

“I cut off contact,” Crystal Eckhart said. “I have his daughter. He’s never paid child support.”

Since moving to Rockwood four years ago, Skys has portrayed himself as enjoying the life of a rich computer genius.

He has given money to the Rockwood Area School District to buy football uniforms and donated what school officials described as used laptops after some of the district’s computers were stolen. He withdrew a pledge of $200,000 to the district for a new stadium, saying he didn’t receive support from the community.

‘Suddenly he’d have money’

Federal authorities believe his lifestyle was a ruse unknown even to his wife and closest friends.

The FBI has charged Skys with attempting to defraud banks out of millions by fabricating documents, e-mails and account statements to show that he owned 13.4 million shares of Sprint through his company, Rockwood-based Kaiser-Himmel Corp. Authorities contend his claims that he owned the stock were false.

When Skys was arrested last week, state police said they found 20 weapons scattered throughout the home he rented in Somerset Township, including grenades and a grenade launcher.

Before he gained prominence in Rockwood, Skys was arrested in November 2004 on charges of simple assault and harassment, according to court documents. Police said he grabbed the woman he calls his wife, Coreen Michelle Cunningham, by the throat, causing a red cut.

District Judge Art Cook dismissed the charges against Skys on Dec. 9 of that year after Cunningham failed to appear for a court hearing.

In an apparently self-generated biography on Wikipedia, Skys maintains he was raised in Germany and moved to the United States when he was 13 years old. He said he received a job with California-based Bulltek LTD at age 17, rising through the ranks to become director of corporate security intelligence operations and chief technical officer within a few years.

“I know he worked with Bulltek,” Crystal Eckhart said. “But most of his job was freelance.

“He’d have no money, then suddenly he’d have money.”

‘He wasn’t my king’

She said Skys always has been interested in computers and briefly attended Riverside Community College. She said Skys told her he was working on developing a video game similar to the “Resident Evil” series of horror-genre games and books.

“He knows some about computers, but I’d say he’s about 85 percent talk,” she said. “He’s really good at that. He’s claimed a lot of stuff.”

Heather Eckhart said Skys bragged about being Aryan, dyed his hair blond and said he was German, like her sister.

She said her sister didn’t want to have the last name Smith if they were married, often joking it would be cool to be known as Crystal Skys or Crystal Glass.

After moving from California to Pennsylvania, Eric Smith became Eric Skys.

“He’s a very good talker,” said Heather Eckhart, adding that Skys finally repaid her several months ago for money she posted to get him out of jail. “When I first met him, he even said he worked on making the Xbox.”

In a final MySpace e-mail, Skys indicated he had just lost money in the stock market and intended to move back to Europe at the end of the year, Heather Eckhart said.

She believes Skys always has been motivated by power and perception.

“When I knew him, everybody called him ‘The Kaiser,’ ” she said.

“I would never call him that. He wasn’t my king.”



Staff writer Kecia Bal contributed to this report.