An Orlando man, Otiz Swinton Jr., has been arrested for defrauding an elderly Sun City man out of a staggering $800,000 in what authorities have described as a combined bank and romance scam, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. The 37-year-old suspect was caught on camera on March 10 at a Publix in Orlando, where he used the victim’s Wells Fargo card to make purchases. This arrest comes as a development in a case that started back in June 2022 when the 92-year-old victim was coerced to transfer substantial amounts from his Fidelity account to his Wells Fargo account. ClickOrlando reported that this money was siphoned through various methods, including cryptocurrency transactions and ATM withdrawals.
Investigators found that between March 13 and April 2, Swinton Jr. quickly issued five counterfeit checks totaling $14,300 from the victim’s account. Additional charges on the victim’s credit card amounted to over $5,000. Despite Swinton Jr.’s prior incarceration for fraud, detectives allege that he was able to cunningly manipulate someone else to withdraw money from the victim’s account while he was still behind barse. These findings were part of an ongoing investigation shared by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office…