October 29, 2022 11:10 a.m.
A former New Jersey man was sentenced to federal prison Friday for his role in a scheme to deceive and cheat $1 million from an elderly Roseburg resident.
A release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office – District of Oregon, said 43-year old Thomas Gerard Mautone was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and three year’s supervised release. Mautone was also ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to his victim.
According to court documents and trial testimony, Mautone was one of five people who worked together to perpetrate a scheme to convince the elderly man to invest $1 million in a fraudulent high-yield international investment scam. In July of 2015, one of Mautone’s co-defendants, 46-year old Jared Mack, of Utah, made initial contact with the victim to pitch an investment opportunity claiming to produce weekly returns of 20 percent. Once the victim expressed interest in the purported opportunity – and produced evidence that he had $1 million to invest – Mack introduced him to Mautone, the supposed connection to investment “platform partner” and codefendant 39-year old Olabode Olukanni, of New York.
The release said for several months, Mautone and his co-defendants maintained frequent contact with the victim and repeatedly attempted to assure him, via a series of increasingly intimidating and pressure-laden communications, of the investment opportunity’s legitimacy, low risk, and promised returns. Mautone made these fake…
