Florida man pleads guilty in $1 million plot to scam elderly people

BALTIMORE — A Florida man has pleaded guilty to a charge that he defrauded more than two dozen elderly people out of nearly $1 million.

David Green, 25, of Miami Gardens, duped victims into believing that a relative, usually a grandchild, needed money for bail, legal fees or other expenses, according to federal prosecutors in Maryland.

Green faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after pleading guilty on Tuesday to a mail fraud conspiracy charge.

Co-defendant McArnold Charlemagne, 33, of Miramar, Florida, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Friday. Both men are scheduled to be sentenced on March 26.

Green was arrested in March 2019 by police in Delaware’s New Castle County while trying to retrieve a package that a victim sent to a location in Newark, Delaware.

Green and Charlemagne’s co-conspirators posed as police officers, lawyers and other individuals to persuade at least 28 different victims to send money to vacant homes in states including Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Florida, U.S. Attorney Robert Hur’s office said in a news release.