According to a court document, two women have been charged with years-long “romance schemes” to scam several old men out of more than $7 million.
A criminal complaint made in the Southern District of New York says that the women, whose names are Rosanna Lisa Stanley and Gina Guy, cheated at least 16 people out of millions of dollars in a scheme that began in 2009 and ended this year when they were caught.
A statement from the U.S. attorney’s office says that Stanley and Guy were both arrested on June 25 in North Miami Beach, Florida, and New York City.
The lawsuit said that Stanley and Guy preyed on their elderly victims by meeting them in person, calling them, texting them, and using an online dating site to show them love or close friendships.
Authorities say that once the women had the trust of their victims, they tricked them into sending them money “under false pretenses.” They told their victims they needed money for fake businesses and organ transplants, among other things.
Authorities say that both ladies are being charged with conspiracy, money laundering, and wire fraud. For each of the charges, the highest prison sentence is 20 years.
“As claimed, Rosanna Lisa Stanley and Gina Guy ripped off elderly people who were just looking for company.” According to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, they used the millions of dollars they got from fraud to live lavish lives at the cost of their victims. “The arrests today show that people who play romance scams will be punished for their crimes.”
Prosecutors say Stanley met with a “elderly male” victim who thought he was in a “exclusive, romantic relationship” with her in one case. The victim gave Stanley money over and over for things like rent and living costs, which Stanley asked for, according to the lawsuit.
The victim finally gave Stanley the information for one of his credit cards as well as the card itself. Prosecutors say Stanley then changed the password for the account and charged thousands of dollars.
Prosecutors say he also wired Stanley a lot of money after she asked for it for a supposed food business. Stanley used $220,000 of that to pay off loans for her boat and expensive car.
The prosecutors said Stanley cheated this person out of at least $555,000.
At least one more time, Stanley is said to have scammed someone out of at least $1,000,000 by pretending to be a psychic who told the victim that his money was “tainted with bad influences.” The woman says Stanley told her that she could “untaint” and “protect” his money and would clean it up and send it back to him after she got it.
Police say Stanley slowly got the victim to send her more and more money so she could help him get to his “desired life.”
According to the complaint, Guy swindled at least $908,000 from four elderly men by telling them she needed the money for medical procedures like kidney transplants. However, she “spent the money on non-medical personal expenses, including expensive meals, utilities, apartment rent, and luxury goods.”
The complaint also said that she got one of the victims to send her $708,000. This was so that “she could help him move his money from his current bank to another bank that offered higher interest rates, so that Victim-6 could maximize the returns on his funds on deposit.”
Police say Guy and Stanley talked another person into sending them thousands of dollars because they needed a loan to buy a dressmaking business in New York City.
“Gina Guy and Rosanna Lisa Stanley are accused of taking advantage of innocent people looking for companionship and using them for their own gain,” said James Smith, who is in charge of the FBI. “The criminals allegedly took millions of dollars from their victims and used the trust of mostly elderly people to pay for their expensive purchases.”
At first, it wasn’t clear if Stanley and Guy had lawyers by their sides. Outside of regular business hours, attempts to get in touch with the court to find out if the suspects had lawyers failed.
