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Hartford County resident Douglas Senerth, age 33, of South Windsor was sentenced to 18 months behind bars Thursday, July 22, in federal court in Hartford after pleading guilty to wire fraud.
Prosecutors said that between 2011 and 2019, Senerth was able to convince his grandmother and late grandfather to fork over $419,000 by claiming to be a college student and telling them the money was going toward tuition and other related expenses.
He later talked them into giving him an additional $260,000 by falsely claiming that he would invest their money into an investment fund run by one of his nonexistent professors, prosecutors said.
According to investigators, Senerth also created phony college transcripts, letters, and email accounts to help sell the scheme.
In addition to his prison time, a judge also ordered Senerth to pay restitution of $679,944.
His federal sentence will begin once his state case on unrelated charges is resolved.
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