Anastasia Sweet: Did accused scam artist give you a ‘Sweet’heart deal?

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Authorities say a 66-year-old woman conned friends into believing she’d made them beneficiaries on her life insurance policy as collateral on real estate investments she guaranteed would bring a minimum return of 20 percent. Anastasia M. Sweet, of 6308 Harcourt Road in Clifton will now have to explain to a judge what she did with their money.

Jerry DeMarco

06/15/2010 8:42 p.m.

Anastasia Sweet

Investigators from the White Collar Crimes Unit of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office sniffed out the scam after some victims got wise.

Sweet “approached various people, whom she had met within her social circles, to invest money in certain real estate projects and or other investments that Ms. Sweet promised to make in their behalf,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said. “Each individual entered into a contract with Ms. Sweet who guaranteed the investors a minimum of a 20% percent rate of return.

“Ms. Sweet created a false sense of security for each investor when she made written representations to each investor that she collateralized each contract by naming them as a beneficiary on a personal life insurance policy that she held on her life,” he added.

With the exception of one investor, Sweet “failed to name the investors as beneficiaries, thereby falsely collateralizing each contract,” Molinelli said.

More theft charges could follow if additional victims turn up.

The number to call: 201.646.2300.

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