14 DAY TRIAL // 63-year-old Karen Vasseur and her 42-year-old daughter Tracy Vasseur, both from Brighton, Colorado, have been sentenced to prison for running what authorities call a “Nigerian Internet romance scam.”
According to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, the two women tricked 375 individuals from the United States and 40 other countries into sending them a total of over $1 million (€760,000).
Court documents detail how the two managed to defraud some of their victims of tens of thousands of dollars.
Tracy Vasseur has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and five years parole. In addition, she was sentenced to another 4 years with 3 years of parole for committing other crimes while on bond from the scam case.
The second sentence will be run consecutively to the first, so she’ll spend a total of 19 years behind bars.
Her mother, on the other hand, was sentenced to 12 years and 5 years parole. This sentence will run concurrent to another 10-year sentence she received for stealing from at-risk adults.
Karen Vasseur tricked her victims into believing that she had inherited millions of dollars from a military friend in Nigeria. She promised them unsecured loans if they would pay her an upfront fee.
The loans were never given to victims and she kept the thousands of dollars in payments to herself.
Authorities will determine at a later date how much restitution she will have to pay.
“Not only did this mother-daughter duo break the law, they broke hearts worldwide. It is fitting that they received stiff sentences for their unconscionable crimes committed in the name of love and the United States military,” stated Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.