Working at times out of a shared Sherman Avenue home, Farouq Fasasi, Rodney Thomas, Jr., and Ralph Pierre spent years bilking elderly people from across the country out of millions of dollars.
Now it’s their turn to pay.
A federal jury Wednesday found the three New Haven men, aged 27 through 32, of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering in a trial that took place in Bridgeport.
The U.S. Attorney’s office announced the verdict in a press release. The “lottery” and “romance” scams separated more than 200 people, many of them “elderly and vulnerable,” out of a total of $5 million between August 2015 and March 2020. Some victims lost life savings; one person lost more than $1 million.
The release described how the lottery scams work: “[S]cammers notify victims by telephone, through online communications, or by mail, that they have won the lottery. The victims are then told that in order to collect the prize they must pay fees for things like taxes, shipping and processing. Often, once a victim sends a small amount of money, a scammer will ask for larger sums of money with a promise of more winnings. The victims never receive winnings. In a romance scam, scammers take advantage of people looking for companionship by pretending to be prospective companions. Scammers typically create fake online profiles on dating websites that include false personal details such as the death of a spouse, or military service, to lure victims to trust them. Once they have gained the trust of victims, scammers will ask victims for money, falsely claiming to need money for medical or business emergencies, for travel to see the victim, or other purposes.”
In this case, “victims sent cash, money orders or checks through the mail to various addresses in Connecticut, and also wired or deposited money into bank accounts in Connecticut controlled by conspiracy members and their associates. Fasasi, Thomas, Pierre and other co-conspirators lived together for a time at a residence on Sherman Avenue in New Haven, where many packages containing cash, checks and money orders from victims were delivered. To help launder the money obtained from fraud victims, Pierre formed a fake charity, called ‘Global Protection Foundation,’ and opened four bank accounts in the fake charity’s name.”
Attorney Leonard C. Boyle is quoted as predicting that Wednesday’s verdict “will help to heal the many individuals who gave thousands of dollars to these predators.”