Man claims ‘catfishing’ led to fraud scheme

Ex-gansevoort resident avoids prison in $101K money laundering scam

ALBANY — To federal prosecutors in Albany, Christopher L. Vandermark was a complicit accomplice in a $101,000 unemployment benefits fraud scheme.

To his attorney, Vandermark was an easy mark for a real fraudster who duped him in a “catfishing” romance plot.

And ultimately, to the federal judge imposing Vandermark’s sentence, the former Saratoga County man’s crime was not deserving of prison.

On Wednesday, Senior U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe sentenced the 57-year-old Vandermark, formerly of Gansevoort, to five years’ probation, denying a federal prosecutor’s request for a sentence between six months to a year behind bars.

Vandermark’s attorney told the judge that in 2019, his client met a person who claimed to be Becca Bowen, a blond-haired country singer and so-called “country Barbie” from South Carolina. He said investigators believe the person was likely male and living in Nigeria. No co-conspirator was charged. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman said prosecutors were unable to identify the person, don’t know their name and believe they live overseas.

“He was lured into a romantic relationship with a fictional online persona who, unbeknownst to Mr. Vandermark, apparently is a fraudster from a foreign country,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Timothy Austin told the judge in a sentencing recommendation. “An especially gullible person, Mr. Vandermark took the bait — hook, line and sinker.”

Court documents show that in June 2020, the person asked Vandermark to open several financial accounts. The wouldbe girlfriend then rerouted $88,000 into the accounts and into Vandermark’s existing accounts. Prosecutors said the money obtained in the scam was bilked from unemployment insurance benefits distributed in the name of people in six states.

Vandermark withdrew the money, purchased hundreds of gift cards, then photographed their numbers and sent them to the would-be girlfriend.

In April 2021, investigators at the state and federal level questioned Vandermark about tens of thousands of fraudulently obtained dollars being entered into his account. He denied receiving the money and lied to the investigators — then added another $13,734 into his accounts between April 2021 and July 2021, according to court papers.

In July 2022, Vandermark pleaded guilty, admitting to conspiring to launder the

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$13,734, which he must pay back.

“While the defendant did not directly defraud the various states, he enabled his coconspirator to do so,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Reiner told the judge in a sentencing recommendation memo. “The defendant willingly remained in and furthered the scheme with full knowledge that the funds entering his account were fraudulently-obtained. He provided the ‘lifeblood’ to the criminal enterprise.”

Austin provided a more sympathetic explanation — that his client was just that gullible.

“Over time, (Vandermark) was persuaded to engage in banking activity and other transactions, believing his ‘girlfriend’s’ innocent explanation for why ‘she’ needed him to do so, and he did so unaware that he was assisting in a fraud,” the defense attorney told Sharpe.

“He remained unaware until he was approached by federal law enforcement agents and provided all the information that he needed to understand that the activity he had been involved in actually assisted a fraudulent scheme,” Austin said. “Stupidly, Mr. Vandermark put his head in the sand and continued to engage in the banking and other transactions for his ‘girlfriend’ when he should have smartened up and stopped.”

Austin said his client was immensely embarrassed and just wanted to be able to pay back the restitution.

The case involved the Detroit field office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.