TALLAHASSEE, Fla — Six people were arrested for stealing a quarter million dollars from seniors in our state by emotionally manipulating them.
Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution says the group would pretend to be lawyers, and tell the elder their grandchildren had been arrested, and they needed money to get out of jail.
According to the investigation, the group preyed on seniors in several counties, including Palm Beach, Brevard, Broward, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange and Sarasota.
According to a press release from that office, the suspects played with the elder’s emotions to get the money.
“These fraudsters know that most grandparents would do anything to help a grandchild in need, and through a convincing imposter scheme they used fear and family to extort Florida seniors—stealing nearly a quarter of a million dollars,” said Attorney General Ashley Moody. “Working with our great law enforcement partners in South Florida, we were able to shut down this far-reaching grandparent scheme and now six fraudsters will have to answer for their crimes.”
According to a press release about the investigation, Jairo Izquierdo, Gennesis Castro, Wendy Angelina Ortiz, Ada Tido, Wandy Castro and Olfa Cornielle were involved in the scheme. They now face multiple first-degree felonies, including organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, criminal use of personal identification and more.
After pretending to be lawyers on the phone, the group would pressure seniors to give up the bail money, according to the investigation. Then, they would tell the seniors to drop the money off, in cash, into a box to be picked up by a courier. That courier would pick up the cash and bring it to the group. In some cases, according to AG Moody’s office, they would contact the same victim more than once asking for more money because “authorities had upgraded the charges.”
One of the victims paid more than $50,000.
About a dozen law enforcement agencies were a part of this investigation, including West Palm Beach police, Boca Raton police, Jupiter police and the FBI.
