A Florida pastor was arrested on five felony charges after he allegedly organized a scheme to defraud and exploit the elderly.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office alleges that Eric Dion Readon took advantage of 76-year-old Edward Fuller who was trying to obtain a mortgage or a line of credit to finish work on his home.
According to prosecutors, Readon introduced himself as a pastor and told Fuller that for $15,000 he would help him get a loan to complete the construction.
Instead, Readon took ownership of Fuller’s home on Northwest 19th Avenue in Miami.
In a statement, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said “there is something particularly galling when an alleged fraudster snatches away the very hopes and dreams of one of our senior residents. Elderly exploitation so often is a complex shell-game depending on great trust being quietly transformed into financial deception via a movement of signed contracts, deeds and paperwork. I thank the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for their work in helping us bring this case before our criminal courts.”
Fernandez Rundle’s office says that Readon, pastor of the New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, left Fuller with thousands of dollars of credit card debt.
In total, Reason’s fraud amounted to $267,000.
The State Attorney’s Office says Readon also used the same property to defraud newlyweds Safiyah and Calvin Singleton, promising them “a rent-to-buy agreement on…
