Florida’s ‘Tinder Swindler’ expected to plead guilty in federal court
The man dubbed the “Casanova scammer” and “Florida’s Tindler Swinder” who investigators say frauded over 20 women out of nearly $1 million will appear in federal court Thursday.
ORIGINAL STORY: Jacksonville woman claims she was duped by a ‘Casanova con man’
Action News Jax has been telling you about Brian Wedgeworth’s alleged scheme for years. Between October 2016 and March 2021, federal prosecutors say, Wedgeworth, 46, used popular dating websites like Bumble, Match, Plenty of Fish, Christian Mingle, and Hinge, among others, to swindle single women.
Court documents state that Wedgeworth used more than a dozen aliases during his spree and established relationships with at least 21 victims in multiple states, including Florida, California, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and Maryland.
Wedgeworth made promises to the women in order to induce them to send him money and buy him jewelry and watches, according to a 22-page federal indictment.
The indictment further alleges Wedgeworth often pretended to be a successful surgeon and claimed to be affiliated with many Ivy-league institutions like the University of Pennsylvania, Duke, and Harvard Medical School.
That’s the story he gave Tekesia Johnson, a Jacksonville woman who reached out to Action News Jax anchor Tenikka Hughes back in June of 2017. Johnson has since passed away, but her daughter gave us permission to include her story in this report.
“I met him on May 21 and he said his name was Brian L. Adams, M.D.,” Johnson said in 2017. She said Wedgeworth pursued her, pretended to pay off her debt, and conned her into buying him expensive watches.
Dr. Brian Adams is one of at least 13 fake names investigators say Wedgeworth gave to the women he targeted.
RELATED: Casanova Scammer’ cons women out of $750K
Back in 2017, Action News Jax called the number Johnson gave us for Wedgeworth to confront him about her claim that he was a scammer. He answered, and claimed the accusations were “totally false” but admitted he had “sort of a sordid history”.
Action News Jax found claims against Wedgeworth dating back nearly a decade and as recently as last March. A report out of Georgia shows a woman told Athens-Clarke County police she wired Wedgeworth $8,000 after he appeared to pay $30,000 towards her mortgage and $50,000 on her student loans. Police said the case was turned over to the feds.
Wedgeworth is a convicted felon who served time in a Georgia prison for forgery, identity theft, and other charges.
Wedgeworth was indicted by a grand jury in October 2017 and arrested in Nashville soon after.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and mail fraud and up to 10 years in prison for money laundering.
If you had contact with Wedgeworth and want to talk to investigators, you can email casanovascammer@uspis.gov.
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