Revere woman indicted for allegedly running romance scam on memory-impaired 85-year-old
Detailed summary
A retired professor suffering from various physical and mental ailments allegedly sent the woman over $1 million under the guise of a land investment.
A Revere woman was indicted this week for allegedly running a romance and investment fraud scheme on an 85-year-old retired professor for more than a decade, federal prosecutors said.
Maria A. Rezende, 66, was arrested on Tuesday, just as she was allegedly planning to flee the country for Brazil, prosecutors said.
She allegedly convinced the man, who suffers from various physical and mental ailments, to send her more than $1 million, according to an affidavit in the case.
Rezende was indicted for wire fraud by a federal grand jury in Boston on Thursday, a charge that could carry up to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said.
According to an affidavit filed by agents with the Internal Revenue Service, Rezende was aided in the alleged scheme by as many as five co-conspirators, who were not named.
Agents said Rezende immigrated to the United States on a K-1 fiancé visa in 2010, about three years before she met the man, who lives in Massachusetts and currently suffers from end-stage renal disease and possibly Alzheimer’s.
The pair reportedly began a romantic relationship in July 2013, meeting through a class he was teaching, the affidavit said, and grew closer as he asked her about plans she had to open a hair extension business.
According to the affidavit, Rezende told the man she was the illegitimate daughter of former Brazilian politician Iris Rezende and was set to inherit valuable farmland.
The man’s children grew increasingly concerned about their father’s relationship with Rezende in 2016, and hired a Brazilian attorney who helped uncover more than $1 million he had sent Rezende in support of allegedly false investments related to the farmland.
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