Man Admits Swindling Seniors, Gets Prison
A Huntington Beach man who tricked senior citizens nationwide into thinking that they had won prize money and persuaded them to pay a gift tax pleaded guilty to money laundering and grand theft charges.
Roy Joseph Perry, 29, who had been arrested by the Irvine Police Department’s economic crime unit, pleaded guilty in Orange County Superior Court on Friday to all 91 counts against him. He was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of more than $186,000 to victims of the telemarketing scam.
Police said Perry and three co-defendants operated a telemarketing boiler-room operation in Huntington Beach from which hundreds of people were called and told that they had won amounts ranging from $25,000 to $1 million from “National Clearing House.”
The victims were told that they had to pay a 1% state gift tax to receive the prize money, and they sent amounts ranging from $400 to $10,000 to post office boxes in Irvine but received no prize money in return, said police.
The other defendants, Ahri Gareen, Ryan Pirkle and Richard Basile, are still awaiting arraignment in Harbor Municipal Court on the 91 felony counts.
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