A Georgia woman has been indicted in Missouri on charges that stole nearly half a million dollars in lottery winnings from a 60-year-old victim.
Freya Pearson, 41, of Georgia and formerly of Kansas City, Mo., was charged last month in a nine-count indictment by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, according to Don Ledford, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri.
The indictment, according to Ledford, alleges that Pearson convinced her victim to transfer $480,000 into the bank account of an organization called Recidivism at Work, a nonprofit entity Pearson had recently established. This victim, the indictment says, had won a prize of $2 million in the Missouri Lottery in 2008 and, after purchasing two houses, established an annuity to provide about $30,000 per year for the rest of her life.
Pearson allegedly instructed the victim to withdraw her lottery winnings from the annuity account. Instead of using the money for the nonprofit or for any business purpose, the indictment alleges, Pearson used the money to make purchases, travel, gamble and cover her own personal expenses.
Additionally, the indictment alleges that Pearson made random payments totaling $38,170 to the victim, using the victim’s own money, before stopping entirely. Authorities say that Pearson did not file a tax return for the 2010 tax year, and therefore did not pay income taxes of $122,000 that would have been levied on the $441,830 of taxable income she received from defrauding her victim.
The indictment charges Pearson with three counts of wire fraud, four counts of money laundering, one count of tax evasion and one count of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the latter charge related to an application for federal housing benefits.
Officials allege that when the victim met Pearson in 2010, the latter was unemployed with child support and Social Security benefits for one of her children being the only sources of her income. In March of that year, she began to receive benefits from the Section 8 program; over four years, she received a total of $76,837 in federal housing benefits.
Pearson, arrested on Oct. 31 and arraigned on the same day, pleaded not guilty and was released with a $10,000 bond.
Here in Georgia, Pearson has filed legal paperwork against Rockdale County Probate Court Judge Charles K. Mays Sr. alleging, among other things, that Mays refused to pay her nearly $20,000 in back wages.
According to the Rockdale Citizen, Pearson is seeking warrants charging Mays with theft of services, theft by deception and forgery.
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