Fraud ring siphoned $2M from 401(k) accounts

A sophisticated identity fraud ring exposed by investigators from Colorado’s Great-West Financial siphoned nearly $2 million from 20 retirement accounts of people from California to New York, including a railroad police agent.

U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer of Colorado on Monday filed a civil complaint in U.S. District Court in Denver and seized nearly $300,000 from nine bank accounts. Members of the fraud ring had transferred or spent the remainder of the stolen retirement funds.

Great-West of Englewood serves as a record keeper for various 401(k) plans across the country, according to the lawsuit. A company audit uncovered the fraud scheme.

Between November 2016 and February 2017, Jeanette Delong, Patricia Fisher and James Henschel obtained and used personal identification information of individuals to tap their retirement accounts, the lawsuit says.

The suspects gave different explanations about how they obtained the money that they received in disbursements of up to $456,000.

When confronted about receiving $763,000 from other people’s retirement accounts, Delong claimed she thought the money entering her account was proceeds from an investment.

In 2008, Delong and five other members of a Medford, Ore., church group invested a total of $400,000 with a man named Steven Thompson, who claimed to have contracts with the Nigerian Petroleum Corporation. Eight years later after she asked for her money back, she started getting large amounts of money, some of which was intended for her investment partners, she told investigators.