Post by anenro on Sept 24, 2020 20:02:54 GMT 4
Corona businesswoman who faked connections to Kobe Bryant, Taylor Swift, sent back to prison for fraud
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A Corona woman, who served over four years in prison for lying to obtain $15 million in credit, later admitted she hid her criminal history to defraud an investor and was sentenced Monday, Sept. 21 to another 20 months behind bars.
Carolyn Marie Jones, 57, concealed her prior convictions and presented herself as a successful entrepreneur, U.S. Attorney’s Office officials said Tuesday in a news release. She used “lies and deceit” to convince her most recent victim to give her $13,000 from a retirement fund, IRS Special Agent Ryan Asato wrote in court documents.
Jones’s defense attorney, Ian Wallach, declined to comment on the case Tuesday.
Jones told her most recent victim she had support from LeBron James, Taylor Swift, Chrissy Teigen, Floyd Mayweather, the Kardashians and other household names, federal officials said. She claimed Kobe Bryant’s daughter was planning to represent her clothing line on Jan. 26, after learning the Lakers star and Gianna Bryant died in a helicopter crash, officials said.
“I am devastated — now we really have work to do,” Jones wrote in a text message the day of the tragedy. “Kobe wanted his daughter to be the face of our brand… I have been in shock all morning…”
Those were lies, according to court documents. Her latest victim would have never given Jones money if the investor had “known about defendant’s criminal history, particularly the defendant’s prior denim jeans fraud schemes,” Asato wrote in a declaration filed in May.
Jones owned Diamond Decisions Inc., which sold jeans under the labels Privacywear and PRVCY Premium, before she was sentenced in December, 2015 to 79 months in prison, according to court documents. She falsified her company’s financial records and used another person’s Social Security number in order to open a multi-million dollar line of credit with Union Bank. She also “fabricated relationship with celebrities,” to deceive the bank, Asato said.
Jones filed for bankruptcy after defaulting on her loans, and then hid her assets from the IRS. She was already on trial for fraud when a federal grand jury indicted her in July 2014 on suspicion of convincing victims in Georgia and Texas to hand over about $124,100 in a phony investment scheme. Charges related to the latter case were dismissed as part of a plea agreement filed in February 2015.
Jones pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of concealing assets in bankruptcy. She was still behind bars when she posted a craigslist ad titled “Seeking Financial Partner!! up to $25K,” and was contacted by a would-be investor in December 2019. Jones was housed with an inmate reentry program in South Central Los Angeles when she toured a warehouse in Vernon with her victim in an effort to make the business venture appear legitimate.
Jones was released from custody on Feb. 4. The person she was attempting to defraud became suspicious after giving her money, and began providing information to the IRS. That ultimately led to the revocation of her parole and her return to prison.
.
A Corona woman, who served over four years in prison for lying to obtain $15 million in credit, later admitted she hid her criminal history to defraud an investor and was sentenced Monday, Sept. 21 to another 20 months behind bars.
Carolyn Marie Jones, 57, concealed her prior convictions and presented herself as a successful entrepreneur, U.S. Attorney’s Office officials said Tuesday in a news release. She used “lies and deceit” to convince her most recent victim to give her $13,000 from a retirement fund, IRS Special Agent Ryan Asato wrote in court documents.
Jones’s defense attorney, Ian Wallach, declined to comment on the case Tuesday.
Jones told her most recent victim she had support from LeBron James, Taylor Swift, Chrissy Teigen, Floyd Mayweather, the Kardashians and other household names, federal officials said. She claimed Kobe Bryant’s daughter was planning to represent her clothing line on Jan. 26, after learning the Lakers star and Gianna Bryant died in a helicopter crash, officials said.
“I am devastated — now we really have work to do,” Jones wrote in a text message the day of the tragedy. “Kobe wanted his daughter to be the face of our brand… I have been in shock all morning…”
Those were lies, according to court documents. Her latest victim would have never given Jones money if the investor had “known about defendant’s criminal history, particularly the defendant’s prior denim jeans fraud schemes,” Asato wrote in a declaration filed in May.
Jones owned Diamond Decisions Inc., which sold jeans under the labels Privacywear and PRVCY Premium, before she was sentenced in December, 2015 to 79 months in prison, according to court documents. She falsified her company’s financial records and used another person’s Social Security number in order to open a multi-million dollar line of credit with Union Bank. She also “fabricated relationship with celebrities,” to deceive the bank, Asato said.
Jones filed for bankruptcy after defaulting on her loans, and then hid her assets from the IRS. She was already on trial for fraud when a federal grand jury indicted her in July 2014 on suspicion of convincing victims in Georgia and Texas to hand over about $124,100 in a phony investment scheme. Charges related to the latter case were dismissed as part of a plea agreement filed in February 2015.
Jones pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of concealing assets in bankruptcy. She was still behind bars when she posted a craigslist ad titled “Seeking Financial Partner!! up to $25K,” and was contacted by a would-be investor in December 2019. Jones was housed with an inmate reentry program in South Central Los Angeles when she toured a warehouse in Vernon with her victim in an effort to make the business venture appear legitimate.
Jones was released from custody on Feb. 4. The person she was attempting to defraud became suspicious after giving her money, and began providing information to the IRS. That ultimately led to the revocation of her parole and her return to prison.