Veteran lived in NC home since 1950s — until fraud scheme ended in eviction, feds say
A veteran was kicked out of his house after falling victim to a fraud scheme in North Carolina, officials say.
Now, a woman he befriended is facing prison time for financial crimes, federal prosecutors said Tuesday in a news release.
Rozalia Ann Kramer, 51, was at a K&W Cafeteria in Greensboro when she met a World War II veteran and joined him for a meal, according to an indictment filed in the Middle District of North Carolina.
The two started to eat together regularly, and Kramer discovered the man had little retirement savings left, according to prosecutors.
That’s when he turned to Kramer, who presented herself as a “wealthy real estate investor,” federal officials say.
Kramer told the veteran she could get him a reverse mortgage and “would provide him a life estate that would allow him to live in (his) property for the rest of his life,” according to the news release.
The man, a widower who moved to his house in the 1950s, gave a property deed to Kramer, the release said.
But then his new friend started to bilk him out of thousands of dollars, according to prosecutors.
As part of the scheme, Kramer convinced him to loan $75,000 to a “corporation she controlled” and gave him a “promissory note due in one year,” federal officials say.
It turns out, Kramer kept the money for herself, officials say.
She then left for Colorado, stopped contacting the veteran and halted loan payments, the news release said.
The loan company foreclosed, and the man was evicted, the release said.
His daughter told a courtroom the eviction “had a devastating impact on her father,” who died last year, according to prosecutors.
Kramer pleaded guilty in October and was sentenced on charges of money laundering and wire fraud, court records show.
Last month, she was ordered to serve two years in prison and three years of parole, officials say. She also must pay $190,000 and forfeit $102,000, according to prosecutors.
Her court documents refer to Steven Glen Shaffer, who entered a guilty plea for wire fraud in December, records show. Prosecutors say Kramer and Shaffer ran a scheme from October 2015 to May 2017.
Federal officials on Tuesday announced they were targeting people accused of scamming older U.S. residents and said more than 400 people were facing related charges this year.
“Defrauding older people is reprehensible conduct and we will use all the federal resources available to us to make sure defendants who commit these vile crimes are held accountable,” said Matthew G.T. Martin, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Veteran lived in NC home since 1950s — until fraud scheme ended in eviction, feds say."
