"They told me I had a week to prove my innocence."

Philip Simone — who worked in the settlement division at Merrill Lynch’s Garden City office for 28 years — had the same name as a man sought by Mexican officials for paying for sex with minors in that country.

The New York Post has the story:

Simone said he first learned he was a victim of mistaken identity when federal marshals approached him at his Merrill Lynch desk in May 2008.

They escorted him to a security room, then dropped their bombshell, he said.

“They told me they had a warrant for my arrest in Mexico,” he recalled. “That’s when the room started to spin.

“They told me they were going to put me on a plane right there. I have never been more scared in my life.”

After being placed in handcuffs and leg shackles, the bewildered dad — with no arrest history — told agents that he wasn’t the man they were looking for.

Federal prosecutors let Simone out on bail with a warning.

“They told me I had a week to prove my innocence,” he said.

After going on unemployment, Simone took a school custodian job in Queens.

Simone said he suffers everything from depression to lessened sex drive because of the incident.

But Assistant US Attorney Vincent Lipari, in his opening statement, suggested that Simone was greatly exaggerating his plight to score a payday.

Lipari also stressed that Simone spent a total of only four hours in custody and that his case was dropped in a matter of days.

Read more here.