He allegedly used what amounted to a variation on a scam often perpetrated by impersonating veterans and active duty military: the “Sweetheart Swindle”.
A former FBI agent from the Dallas, Texas field office has been indicted on a plethora of charges for allegedly swindling nearly $1 million from a woman in Granbury, TX identified only as C.T.
The charges a grand jury indicted the former-agent on are: seven counts of wire fraud, one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of impersonating a federal officer [it’s unclear why he would need to if he’s FBI], “one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity”, and one count of lying to law enforcement.
William Roy Stone Jr., aged 62, was a recent retiree from the agency when he began the con, having left a little over a month before. Federal prosecutors say Stone told his mark she was on “secret probation” for unspecified drug crimes.
He went on to pressure her into paying him and an accomplice funds to “mentor and “supervise” her to get the supposed full weight of the federal government off her back.
Stone allegedly had the audacity, according to prosecutors, to even propose marriage as a way out from the secret government pressure that was supposedly on his mark.
This could be a variation on the age old “sweetheart swindle”. This is when a con artist, usually male, starts an intimate relationship with a mark, usually female, not for love, but to slowly bilk her of her hard-earned money.
With the advent of social media, the sweetheart swindle has proliferated like a gigantic, digital whack-a-mole game on a week-long meth bender. Scammers also, unfortunately, like to jettison and steal the very real sacrifices of our veterans and law enforcement for this type of graft because it further tugs at the mark’s heart strings. So, often they impersonate soldiers or veterans.
It’s unclear as of now, but it’s a possibility this is how this con started, if indeed the federal government is correct, and Stone is guilty of these crimes. It fits the “sweetheart swindle” well.
If convicted, Stone faces up to 178 years behind bars. Stay tuned for more as the author hears it.