Scam cheats local seniors
Crooked fiscal adviser picks wrong victim, state says.
By JANET KELLEY, Staff Writer
While the insurance agent was helping senior citizens with their retirement funds, prosecutors say, he allegedly pocketed more than $80,000 of their investment money.
But Scott Michael Powell, 49, of Palmyra, Lebanon County, picked the wrong senior citizen when he allegedly defrauded a 97-year-old Lancaster County woman last spring, officials said.The woman's son, it turns out, is a private detective and a retired deputy inspector general — the state agency that investigates fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayers' money.
When Jeff Fry looked into his mother's $24,000 "investment" last May, according to court documents, he immediately became suspicious and called Lancaster County detectives.Detectives searched Powell's home and business computer records, discovering a total of 11 people who had trusted Powell to invest their retirement money in phony certificates of deposit and mutual funds.
The case was turned over to the state Attorney General's Office because the victims, almost all of whom were senior citizens, were from several counties — four from Lancaster County, five from Dauphin County, and one victim each from Philadelphia, Lebanon and Cumberland counties.
This morning, Powell was charged by the state Attorney General's Elder Abuse Unit with participating in a corrupt organization, plus 11 counts each of theft by deception, insurance fraud, forgery and theft, all of which are felony offenses.
"This scheme targeted seniors across central Pennsylvania, selling thousands of dollars worth of fictitious investments to a list of unsuspecting victims in their 70s, 80s and 90s," state Attorney General Tom Corbett said in a prepared statement, announcing the arrest.
"With one of the largest senior populations in the country, financial abuse is a serious threat to older Pennsylvanians," Corbett said."The Attorney General's Elder Abuse Unit is dedicated to investigating and prosecuting criminals who exploit our seniors for their own personal gain."
Concerns about elder financial abuse, and of other forms of fraud targeted at senior citizens, can be reported by calling the Attorney General's toll-free Elder Abuse Hotline at 1-866-623-2137.
Abridged
SOURCE: Lancaster Online
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