An Orange County senior citizen has been made homeless after being targeted in a fraud scheme that spent nearly $2 million in losses on him, officials announced Friday.
The 78-year-old victim was scamled by John Tamahele McCabe, 42, of Kailua, Hawaii, who made the false promise to mediate the sale of the victim’s yacht, according to the Justice Department.
McCabe confessed to his federal crime on Thursday and pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
The DOJ said everything started with McCabe’s offer to help victims whose identity was not made public to sell his yacht.
“What the victim didn’t know was that McCabe used the documents that were manufactured to change ownership of the yacht to McCabe’s name,” DOJ explained in the release. “McCabe then diverted the proceeds into his own personal bank account, and used most of the proceeds for his own personal purposes,” he said.
McCabe also pushed the victims to move his million-dollar Irvine family to a limited liability company (LLC) controlled by McCabe.
Without speaking to the victim, McCabe made himself the sole manager of the LLC, and according to court documents he took out and secured a $1 million loan from the victim’s residence, emitting all fairness.
McCabe spent his revenue and then defaulted on the loan. The victim’s home was sold for a foreclosure sale, the DOJ said it “makes the victim homeless.”
Through the scheme, McCabe scams the total victims of a total of around $1,814,000, officials said.
If you or someone you know is over 60 years old and is a victim of financial fraud, the DOJ stated that assistance is available at the National Elder Craud Hotline: 1-833-Fraud-11 (1-833-372-8311).
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