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Jacqueline Velazquez, 37, of Reading, and Daniel Duran, 33, of Queens played key roles in the phone and email-based scheme, Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said.
Here’s how it worked, Williams said:
Co-schemers based in the Dominican Republic called elderly victims throughout the U.S. Posing as a grandchild, or the grandchild’s attorney, they claimed they’d been jailed after a car crash and needed money to pay lawyers, doctors or the courts.
In one instance, court records show, a victim was told the driver of another vehicle was a pregnant woman who died.
The con artists had the victims send large amounts of cash or money orders to certain addresses, then intercepted delivery drivers and split up the proceeds, authorities said.
Money orders were cashed by Velazquez in Reading and by Duran in Jamaica, Queens, court records show.
Such crimes are “particularly heinous,” Williams said, “because they prey on a senior’s love for their family.”
Detectives in Reading caught a huge break after seizing Duran’s cellphone.
On it, they said, he’d been recorded collecting a FedEx envelope, pulling a smaller envelope containing money orders from it and holding them – clearly showing the routing numbers.
They eventually turned the case over to federal authorities.
Both Duran and Velazquez took deals from the government rather than face trial, pleading guilty to several counts each mail fraud. Both must serve out the sentences they’ll eventually receive because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
Williams credited the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Reading police with the investigation leading to the pleas, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew T. Newcomer.
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