45°
Dustin C. Grant, 31, was being held on $100,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail after his lawyer called Bergen County prosecutors and made arrangements to turn himself in.
He was arraigned this morning in Hackensack, brought to Ridgefield police headquarters for processing and then lodged at the jail.
Officials at the Chase Bank branch on Bergen Boulevard summoned borough police last July after the victim made four separate wire transfers to a bank in Plano, TX.
Detectives learned that the woman met the man she was sending it to on a dating site, Sgt. Robert Meurer told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
He initially identified himself as Christopher Patrick Boucher, Meurer said, and corresponded with her only online and by phone.
“After gaining her confidence, he told her that he was a builder,” the sergeant said. “He then solicited money from her to buy building supplies for a solar panel business that never existed.
“He told her that he would pay her back with interest but never did,” he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Once the transactions were complete, she never heard from him again. ”
Detective Joseph Malanga worked the investigation with assistance from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and police in Dallas, Meurer said.
Three months ago, Malanga obtained an arrest warrant for Grant.
A grand jury in Hackensack then indicted him on four counts of first- and second-degree theft in January.
The indictment alleges that Grant “directed directed, organized, financed, planned, managed, supervised or controlled the transportation of transactions in property which a reasonable person would believe derived from criminal activity.”
He “impersonated or assumed a false identity — namely, Christopher Patrick Boucher — for the purpose of obtaining a benefit for himself or another, or to insure or defraud another,” it says.
Grant, between the beginning of May and the beginning of August last year, “purposely or knowingly and without authorization, accessed or attempted to access data, database, computer, computer storage medium, computer program or software, computer equipment, system or network to execute a scheme to defraud or to obtain services, property, personal ID or money from [the victim],” the indictment says.
CHECK BACK FOR MORE DETAILS
MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF
Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.
