A former Washington State Department of Corrections inmate and his accomplice have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their scheme to target seriously ill veterans for fraud.
U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman announced on Oct. 4 that Darryl Lamont Young, 46, is in the King County Jail on unrelated charges. His co-defendant, Aqeelah Ngiesha Williams, 27, was arrested on Oct. 4 and pleaded not guilty that same day in federal court.
“The conduct in this case is truly shocking – calling medical facilities and seriously ill veterans under the pretense of being a VA employee trying to provide the ill veteran with financial benefits. In reality, these two were seeking personal and financial information to defraud the veteran,” Gorman said in a release. “While they did not get a huge amount of money with this scheme, the harm they caused to those already suffering a health crisis, is deserving of federal prosecution.”
According to the indictment, Young has served in the military and understood some of the services provided to veterans. Between December 2021, and April 2023, while incarcerated, Young would use the jail phone system to place calls to veteran’s facilities. He would ask to be transferred to a particular medical facility so that the medical facility would not know that the call was from an inmate.