An ex-stripper from West Palm Beach and her partner-in-crime managed to swindle more than $200,000 from a 66-year-old California woman, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Erica Midyette, 30, booked into jail Wednesday, faces charges of money laundering and grand theft after the pair continuously scammed the woman for a year, an arrest report said.
Midyette’s partner used a fake name and posed as a representative of a timeshare refund company, promising the alleged victim he would recover all of the money she had lost to a timeshare marketing firm.
All the woman had to do was pay the “fees,” which were only accepted in the form of a cashier’s check and made payable to a name and address that the man provided.
The woman complied, the report said, really believing she would be able to recover all of the money she lost.
Midyette’s role in the scheme was to deposit the cashier’s checks. Since July 1, 2013, Midyette received and cashed 76 checks from the alleged victim, totaling to $232,233.58.
During an interview, Midyette told investigators she would cash the checks at two different Wells Fargo Banks to avoid looking suspicious. She would then give her partner the majority of the money and keep the rest for herself.
Deposits into Midyette’s personal account from Sept. 2013 to Feb. 2014 totaled to $71,750. She told investigators that with the exception of around $3,000 of child support, all of the deposits came from receiving the cashier’s checks.
She has not been employed since the end of May last year.
That woman was gullible enough to give them 76 checks?