Fake ‘retired judges’ promised sweepstakes winnings — then they faced a real judge
The phones rang mostly in the homes of the elderly. The voice on the other end of the line identified himself as a retired federal judge, and he said he had great news: There was this big sweepstakes, and they had won.
But first, the “judge” would explain, there were these incidental expenses: import fees, insurance, taxes. All could be taken care of, the caller would assure, with a series of easy cash payments.
Over a four-year period, millions of dollars disappeared.
This week in Charlotte, it was the judges’ time to pay.
On Thursday, three men were sentenced to prison terms of 75 to 114 months for their roles in a telemarketing scheme that, according to federal prosecutors, stole $11 million from its mostly elderly victims in North Carolina and other states.
U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn — a real one — also ordered that Donald Dodt, 75, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Thomas Sniffen of Peekskill, N.Y., and Michael Saxon of Ontario, Canada, will pay millions in restitution.
Cogburn saved the most punitive terms for the 58-year-old Sniffen, who will spend 9 1/2 years in prison and repay some $11.24 million to his victims.
The sentencing capped off a week of reckonings in Charlotte federal court for predators of the elderly.
Earlier, Hal H. Brown Jr., 70, of Asheville, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and money laundering in connection with his $22 million entertainment-based Ponzi scheme. Many of those fleeced out of a combined amount of $10 million were near or at retirement age, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte said.
Brown, 70, marketed his Oodles Inc. as owning hundreds of millions of dollars in family entertainment programming that he was on the verge of selling to Paramount Pictures, Disney or Apple. He now faces up to 30 years in prison and more than $5 million in fines.
On Friday, Cogburn also sentenced Robert Leslie Stencil of Charlotte and Michael Allen Duke of Denton, Texas, to 135 months and 70 months, respectively, for selling millions of dollars in stock for a sham company. The pair were also ordered to pay millions in restitution or forfeitures.
Prosecutors say most of the 140 victims were elderly or vulnerable.
Frequent senior scams
The prosecutions follow U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray’s announcement last March of his office’s “Elder Justice Initiative,” which he said would make cases of financial scamming of the elderly a priority of his Charlotte and Asheville staffs.
According to the annual report of the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging, North and South Carolina rank second and third, respectively, among Southeastern states in the number of calls to the Aging Fraud Hotline.
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Sweepstakes scams rank third. According to a 31-count indictment, Dodt, Sniffen and Saxon worked from a call center in Costa Rica, but used technology to make it appear that they were calling from Washington, D.C., where they said they worked for the government.
The three had plenty of help. According to court records, about 10 other individuals were indicted in connection with the scheme. Most have already been sentenced.
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