A 39-year-old Providence man who posed as a relative to scam more than $130,000 from elderly people in Rhode Island and Massachusetts has been sentenced to a year and one day in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Vidal Roquez was also ordered to pay restitution to his victims and perform community service by speaking to senior citizen groups about his criminal conduct, the office of U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha said in a news release.
Roquez would visit the homes of his victims and collect cash while telling them that a relative, usually their grandchild or child, had been arrested and needed bail money urgently, prosecutors said. He would also claim that a “gag order” was in place regarding the legal matter and that they were not allowed to tell anyone.
An investigation into the scam, which was led by Homeland Security and the Little Compton Police Department, identified 13 senior citizens who had been victimized by Roquez. Roquez was arrested after he failed to defraud another senior in Little Compton, Rhode Island, prosecutors said.
On Dec. 14, 2023, Roquez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Thursday, he was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to perform 60 hours of community service, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Roquez was also ordered to pay $130,300 in restitution to his victims. The victims lived in Warwick, Portsmouth, Tiverton, Cranston and South Kingstown, Rhode Island, and Shrewsbury, Northborough and Weston, Massachusetts, prosecutors said.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.