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Michael Odell Anderson, 64, of Crystal Beach, Florida, and Dun Lorring, Virginia, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in relation to his participation in an elder fraud scam, the Department of Justice announced this week.
Between April 2020 and December 2020, officials said that Anderson conspired with others to persuade elderly victims to give them thousands of dollars under false pretenses.
Specifically, members of the conspiracy called elderly victims posing as police officers, lawyers, or relatives, then convinced victims to send money for the purported legal expenses of a loved one, generally a grandchild, who had been incarcerated in connection with a car accident or traffic stop involving a crime.
If a victim fell for it and provided cash, the conspirators then continued to take advantage of them, finding new fabricated reasons for them to keep paying out, all while still alleging they would get their money back eventually.
Prosecutors said that conspiracy members would continue to call victims and demand additional funds, regularly obtaining tens of thousands of dollars from the retirement savings of their victims.
To conceal the crime, the co-conspirators often told the victims that there had been a “gag order” placed on the case requiring secrecy and that the victim could not share the information with others.
As part of his guilty plea, Anderson admitted to posing as a bail bondsman or courier, starting his scheme in April 2020 when he traveled to Maryland to begin collecting cash throughout the DMV region while growing his team of fraudsters throughout the area, taking a financial cut from each.
“For example, Anderson, posing as a bail bondsman, traveled to Sykesville, Maryland on Dec. 4, 2020, and collected $29,000 in cash from one victim, who had received a call from a co-conspirator telling her that her nephew had been arrested and needed money for his bail,” prosecutors said.
“The next day, (the victim) received another call and was told that she needed to pay an additional $10,000 in cash for bail money,” they continued. “Anderson again traveled to (his victim’s) s home to collect the cash and was arrested while attempting to retrieve the money.”
In total, as a result of the scheme, Anderson and the other conspirators caused at least 49 victims to pay at least $842,670 through entirely false pretenses, representation, and promises.
Of that amount, approximately $578,170 was not returned to the victims.
As part of his plea agreement, Anderson will be required to pay full restitution and forfeit any property or assets that derived from his scam, including $70,327 seized from his home in December 2020.
When he is sentenced in March 2023, Anderson faces up to 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
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