It was, perhaps, ironic that Joanne and John Skok of 43H Flintlock Rd., Ledyard, appeared in New London Superior Court Thursday to ask for more time to raise the money they need to pay a lawyer to defend them against charges of larceny in the first degree and conspiracy to commit larceny.
The Skoks are accused of bilking Montville resident Jacqueline Becker, 73, out of $45,000–money that Becker told police she gave the Skoks to pay for an attorney they claimed to have hired on her behalf after they convinced her she’d been the victim of a fraud scam.
It seems that Becker might well have been a victim of fraud but, according to the police affidavit, it was the Skoks who did the defrauding, when Becker fell for an elaborate story the couple concocted involving stolen cars, a phony lawsuit, and a cast of characters ranging from the Gotti crime family to an Argentinian diplomat.
JOAN SKOK, 60, a heavyset woman in a wheelchair who wore a surgical mask when she appeared in court today with her husband, John, doesn’t fit the stereotype of a slick con artist but police say she has a long criminal history.
Police records show Skok had been arrested multiple times from 1987 to 2000 on charges of larcey, and of issuing bad checks, and has gone by a variety of aliases including Joanne Warner, Joanne Rochette and Joanne Brown.
Becker was president and treasurer of the Montville Town Fair when she first met Joanne and John Skok in 2005. The couple had answered an ad for volunteers to help with the fair. Joanne Skok told Becker she was an experienced grant writer who could help raise money for the event. The two became friends.
Becker told police she had used $40,000 of her own money to pay outstanding bills for the fair, because she believed Skok when she said she had secured grants for $45,000 to reimburse her. The grant money never did materialize but that’s not why the Skoks are facing charges today. In March, 2010, Becker went to the police because she suspected the Skoks had defrauded her personally.
According to the arrest affidavit, Becker told police she considered Joanne a friend and had confided in her when one of Becker’s own relatives had defaulted on a car loan for which Becker had cosigned. When the bank turned to Becker to repay the loan, Becker said she told Skok she thought her relative should be responsible for the debt. If her signature was on any document other than the loan itself, she said, it would have to be a forgery.
It was at that point, Becker told police, that Joanne Skok offered to help, saying she had a nephew in the FBI who could look into the possible fraud.
At first, Becker said, the Skoks asked for nothing, but then Joanne said that her nephew “Stuart” would get into trouble for working on something for the family and suggested that Becker hire a private investigator he knew instead. Becker agreed to withdraw $2,100 from her retirement account. She gave the money to Joanne Skok, she told police, to pay the investigator. Becker said Skok asked her to keep the transaction secret to protect “Stuart.”
AS BECKER RECOUNTED IT, Skok’s story then became increasingly complicated. First, Joanne told Becker the investigator had learned that the car dealership had been selling stolen cars and that a number of people who had been swindled were suing. Becker told police that Skok offered to hire an attorney on her behalf so she could join the suit, and Becker gave her money to do so.
From the spring through the fall of 2008, Becker made numerous payments to the Skoks, she told police, believing the money was going to cover the cost of hiring investigators and attorneys. A police search of the couple’s bank account found a variety of checks deposited from Becker, with memos noting the payments were for “attorney fees” and “court fees,” but the only withdrawals the Skoks ever made were to cover their own living expenses.
In the statement she gave to police, Becker said Joanne Skok told her to say nothing to anyone because the car dealership was owned by a member of the Gotti crime family. Becker said Skok explained that the Gottis planned to sell five houses to settle the suit, and that a house in California worth $225,000 would probably be awarded to her.
When that money didn’t come through, Joanne Skok said an Argentinian diplomat had bought the house but couldn’t cover the closing costs. She suggested that Becker give her more money to fly the attorney to Argentina to get the settlement she was due. Becker did so but was then told that the unfortunate attorney had been hit by a car in Argentina and his briefcase containing all the paperwork for her case had disappeared during the accident. Becker was told she could expect no satisfaction from the Gotti family either, because, according to Joanne Skok, the dealership’s owner had since disappeared into the witness protection program.
As outlandish as the story sounds, Becker believed it. She told police that between January 2006 and January 2010, she gave the Skoks about $90,000.
“It is known that criminals who commit these financial crimes of fraud prey especially on elderly victims,” Detective John Jette, a white collar crime specialist at the Eastern District Major Crime Squad, noted in the arrest warrant. “These criminals will exploit the trust and naivete of certain elderly people by concocting false stories in an effort to defraud victims of their money.”
As fate would have it, the Skoks now need money to pay for a real attorney. As the couple’s income is too high for them to qualify for a public defender, New London Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford gave the Skoks until Sept. 27 to liquidate their assets and raise enough money to pay for a private attorney.
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
