BrocktonPost
BOSTON - A South Dartmouth man was convicted by a federal jury Wednesday of trying to bilk an elderly widower out of part of his retirement savings and all of an $85,000 loan falsely taken to buy land in Maine.
Richard Souza, 46, of South Dartmouth, was convicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston and is scheduled for sentencing May 23, according to a state from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston.
The money used in the crime originally came from the retirement savings of an elderly widower whom Souza had befriended.
Souza persuaded the man to use approximately a quarter of his retirement savings to purchase a property in Maine, as well as to take out a loan of over $85,000 by using the property as collateral.
Souza took the loan proceeds for himself and removed the majority of the proceeds from his account to avoid reporting rules that require banks to report cash transactions of over $10,000.
In 2006, Souza withdrew the majority of the proceeds of the Maine property loan in six separate cash
withdrawals of $9,000 each from five different Sovereign Bank branches in the New Bedford area during a two hour period.
Souza faces up to five years in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment