Leonard Boyle, US Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Hartford County resident Douglas Senerth, age 32 of South Windsor, plead guilty to the fraud on Wednesday, Feb. 23.
According to court documents and statements made in court, between 2011 and 2019, Senerth defrauded his grandmother and his late grandfather by falsely claiming to be a college student and inducing them to give him approximately $419,000 to pay for nonexistent college tuition and other related expenses, and an additional approximately $260,000 by falsely claiming that he would invest their money into an investment fund run by one of his nonexistent professors.
As part of the scheme, Senerth created fraudulent college transcripts, letters, and email accounts that he used to corroborate his lies, court documents show.
Senerth has been detained in state custody since he was arrested in February 2021, on unrelated charges.
He faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison and has agreed to pay restitution of $679,944.
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