A convicted fraudster from Santa Monica, California, who conned the ladies he dated into investing in his fake organizations has been handed a custodial sentence.
Antonio Mariot Wilson, also identified as Dr. Tony Mariot and Brice Carrington, impersonated a Bible scholar and a Navy SEAL in the execution of his romance frauds. Wilson lured his targets utilizing on the internet relationship web-sites, together with the networking dating app Bumble Bizz.
Between Might 2015 and Oct 2017, the 57-12 months-previous tricked 4 females into parting with a full of $387,000. Amid Wilson’s victims was the actress Jenifer Lewis, whose credits consist of the films Beaches and Sister Act.
Throughout Wilson’s sentencing listening to, Lewis appeared by means of Zoom to give the court a victim affect statement. Lewis fulfilled Wilson when he was controlling a branch of L.A. Conditioning and calling himself Brice Carrington.
She described Wilson as “predatory con artist who, during the past 25 a long time, wrecked the life of many gals and adult men.”
The actress said: “He meticulously investigated me on the internet. He used all that information on the web to . . . worm his way into my daily life with false affections. His lies had no boundaries.”
Lewis reported Wilson showed her armed forces medals and what appeared to be formal documents confirming his story that he had been a Navy SEAL. It afterwards transpired that Wilson had purchased the medals and paperwork online.
Wilson tricked Lewis into investing $50k in a fictitious sound design business.
“I agreed to invest, obtaining softened only soon after he introduced his kids to my house,” Lewis said. “He utilized his young children. Even to this working day, that actuality horrifies me the most.”
Lewis said getting to be one particular of Wilson’s victims experienced taken an psychological toll on her.
“The $50,000 he stole from me does not examine to his stealing my potential to believe in. His treachery triggered deep melancholy, and I was pressured back again into therapy,” she explained.
Wilson pleaded guilty to a person federal depend of wire fraud last May perhaps. On March 9, he was sentenced to 8 decades in federal jail and purchased to spend restitution of $272,000.
Prosecutors claimed Wilson did not inform his most the latest victims that he experienced presently served 4 several years in jail following pleading guilty in 2009 to wire fraud and tax evasion rates. In the previous circumstance, Wilson pretended to be an Oscar-winning sound effects designer to fraudulently obtain nearly $4m from buyers.
Some parts of this article are sourced from:
www.infosecurity-journal.com