DENVER, Colo. — Twenty-seven people here have been charged with participating in a crime ring that targeted an elderly woman’s finances and included banks and credit unions among the financial institutions targeted.
A Denver Grand Jury indicted the 27 people in a case involving elder fraud, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann announced Tuesday. They face 56 total counts, TheDenverChannel.com reported.
Two people — Ernest Hill, 53, and Davon Phillips, 27 — headed the alleged crime ring. They are accused of bringing a senior from her home in Las Vegas to live with them in Denver in the fall of 2017, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office. They were not family members of the woman, according to investigators.
TheDenverChannel.com said Phillips became her agent under a Power of Attorney, giving him the full power of her finances. The two men posed as the woman’s grandsons and are now accused of financially exploiting her, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
‘Tangible Tale of Forgery’
McCann called the case a “tangled tale of forgery, conspiracy, theft, theft from an at-risk person, and organized crime.”
The 27 defendants are accused of opening bank accounts with nominal sums at various banks and credit unions throughout the Denver metro area and immediately depositing fraudulent checks to artificially inflate the balances. They then either cashed the checks or withdrew money from ATMs, according to TheDenverChannel.com.
“Their goal, according to the district attorney’s office, was to extract as much money as possible from the bank or credit union before the checks bounced and accounts were closed,” the report added.
By the time the suspects were caught, they had stolen $40,000 from the financial institutions.