A 72-year-old woman met a man on a dating website, moved into his home months later and then steadily scammed him out of $400,000, according to prosecutors in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Janey Sears pushed a man in his 50s to make investments, secretly pocketed the funds into a personal account and then blew through his money, spending $55,000 on a new sedan and gambling away $100,000 at casinos.
A jury in Montgomery County Circuit Court found Sears guilty of theft scheme over $100,000, securities fraud and misappropriation of funds by a fiduciary on Tuesday, according to a news release from the Montgomery County State’s Attorney Office.
Sears connected with the man, a federal worker, on a dating website in September 2019, according to prosecutors. She told the man she was a Harvard graduate who owned a D.C.-based transportation logistics company.
The first time the pair met up in person, Sears suggested she stay at the victim’s home in Silver Spring to make it easier for her to go to a meeting in Baltimore the next morning.
A couple of months later, the man agreed to let her move into the home in November 2019.
Sears talked the man into some home improvement projects and suggested he get a home equity line of credit to help pay for them. With Sears’ encouragement, he secured a $150,000 loan in May 2020.
In August 2021, Sears convinced the man to join an “investment pool” for Pfizer stock. According to prosecutors, she promised he’s made enough to be “financially independent” and told him this type of investment was normally reserved for wealthy people, like herself.
The man passed money to Sears on a monthly basis from August 2021 to May 2023, under the false belief she was making investments on his behalf. Instead, prosecutors said Sears put all of those checks, wire transfers and cash into her personal accounts.
Prosecutors laid out the payments to the jury in a flow chart, which included a transaction to purchase a 2022 Alfa Romeo Giulia in 2021. She told the victim the new car came from her father.
Another chart shows Sears聽gambled about $113,000 at MGM Casino and Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland, as well as Ocean Resort Casino in New Jersey.
The jury deliberated for an hour and fifteen minutes before returning its guilty verdict Tuesday.聽Sears is expected to be sentenced on Aug. 28; she faces up to 23 years in prison.
“The defendant groomed the victim, gaining his trust, and deceived him into believing she was acting in his best interest,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in a news release. “We are grateful that the jury saw through the defendant鈥檚 web of lies and that justice will be served.”
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