John S. Winslow, a 57-year-old former financial advisor from Fox Island, has been sentenced to three years in federal prison after a judge found he stole more than $920,000 from an elderly Silverdale widow. U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright also ordered $1,175,475 in restitution and accepted the forfeiture of Winslow’s Fox Island home to help cover what he owes. According to court records, the victim, in her late 70s, had no immediate family and depended on care programs to help with errands and appointments.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, Winslow slowly embedded himself in the woman’s life over roughly four years, taking her grocery shopping, showing up with flowers and even coaching her through phone calls. Behind the scenes, prosecutors say, he was moving money out of her brokerage accounts into an outside account he controlled, then shifting those funds into his own bank accounts. “This crime was personal,” Judge Cartwright said in the release. Investigators say he tried to disguise the theft by running the money through purchases such as gold coins, which he later sold to local retailers.
As reported by The News Tribune, a grand jury indicted Winslow last year on four counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, four counts of money laundering and four counts of filing false tax returns. Prosecutors asked the court for a 70-month sentence, arguing the scope of the theft and the vulnerability of the victim justified a lengthy term. His defense team, pointing to his lack of prior criminal history and claiming he was “ashamed and remorseful” after losing his career, pushed for 12 months and one day in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Judge Cartwright ultimately landed in the middle, imposing a three-year prison term and ordering restitution as part of the punishment…