Louisville, KY – A Louisville man was sentenced today to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $285,336.93 for defrauding an elderly victim out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bank fraud scheme.
According to court documents, Roy “Wayne” Jenkins, 66, converted at least $285,336.93 of the victim’s property to his personal use through fraudulent bank transactions between August 2013 and January 2018. Jenkins gained access to the elderly victim’s property and bank accounts under the pretense of helping her son, who held Power of Attorney, manage her financial affairs when she was no longer able to do so. The fraudulent transactions Jenkins engaged in during the scheme included making an unauthorized withdrawal of life insurance proceeds to which he was not entitled, forging checks to steal funds from the victim’s accounts and from a trust established for her benefit and making unauthorized online payments from the victim’s accounts to his personal credit card account.
“I commend the work of LMPD and the United States Secret Service during the investigation and prosecution of this case,” stated United States Attorney Michael A. Bennett. “Fraudsters who concoct schemes to target the hard-earned savings of our seniors take note. Along with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners we will work tirelessly in pursuit of identifying, apprehending, and fully prosecuting you.”
The Louisville Metro Police Department and the United States Secret Service investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Corinne E. Keel prosecuted the case.
This case was investigated and prosecuted as part of the National Elder Justice Task Force and the Kentucky Elder Justice Task Force. The Department of Justice’s mission of its Elder Justice Initiative is to support and coordinate the Department’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s older adults. In response to the growing need and targeting areas of greatest concern, the Department of Justice stood up 10 task forces made up of 11 federal districts to combat a variety of elder abuse, including elder financial exploitation. Kentucky’s federal districts make up two of the 11 districts under the Initiative. Kentucky’s task force is comprised of investigators, prosecutors, and others at the local, state, and federal level with a common objective of protecting seniors across Kentucky.
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