Florida woman, 26, tries duping her elderly husband of $1 million by forging checks in his name
TAMPA, FLORIDA: A newly-married Florida woman was arrested and charged after she allegedly tried to con her elderly husband out of $1 million by forging his signature.
Amscot employees notified authorities about Lina Helena Halfon, 26, after she walked into one of their branches on November 7 with a $1 million Wells Fargo cashier's check. The check was in the name of her 77-year-old husband Richard Rappaport, a Tampa businessman, and Halfon tried to cash it in, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
She claimed that she was going to use the money to buy a yacht in Miami with Rappaport and offered Amscot $100,000 to do the transactions, more than twice the company's standard fee.
When they refused, she left and returned a few hours later with three checks, each for $333,333. Amscot employees once again refused her request, and this time made copies of the checks and of Halfon's Israeli passport, which she used as identification along with a US visa. They notified the authorities after she claimed Rappaport could not be there with her because he was out of the country.
The next day, authorities tracked down the 77-year-old and his daughter Dayna Titus to his Tampa home to notify him about the attempted fraud. However, Rappaport reportedly insisted it was a mistake on Halfon's part and informed them he had asked her to return the check.
When authorities visited the 26-year-old at her apartment, which was different from that of Rappaport's, she conceded she had mailed the checks to her sister in Israel after she and her husband fought. She also promised she would have her sister mail the checks back to her.
On November 22, a man with an Orlando address cashed one of the $333,333 checks at a business in New Jersey. He then went ahead with a second check and cashed it for the same amount at the same business five days later.
Investigators subsequently obtained a warrant ordering Wells Fargo to freeze the third check, and on December 12 met Rappaport once again about the case. He admitted he had never signed any of the checks and that he had been a victim of fraud.
Halfon has been charged with money laundering, organized fraud, and exploitation of an elderly person in connection to the crime. During her first court appearance, a judge set her bail at $1 million.