HOUSTON — A Houston woman accused of tricking an elderly couple into giving her over $1 million is now in custody.
We first told you about Regina Lynn Thomas, 56, in April when the FBI offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her arrest.
According to the FBI, Thomas is known to misrepresent herself as a registered nurse at senior care centers in Houston, Sugar Land and Pearland.
She and her son, 38-year-old Isaiah Thomas, are each charged with 67 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Thomas, who also went by Nikki Laday, was arrested last week and she's due in court on Monday.
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The indictment says the mother and son tricked a family after their home was damaged in Hurricane Harvey.
Thomas met the family in 2017 when they were staying at a hotel after the hurricane, the indictment states and offered to help their sick mother. The family later let her stay at their renovated home when they traveled outside the U.S.
While they were away, Thomas allegedly told the family that an arrest warrant came for one of them related to a fraudulent FEMA claim.
According to the indictment, Thomas recommended they hire an attorney. From 2017 to 2019, the family sent Thomas wire transfers totaling $1,040,765 for the fake legal help, the feds say.
The indictment alleges the couple believed they were paying for the attorney’s services. However, the money was allegedly deposited into Isaiah Thomas’ account who shared the funds with his mother.
"Our most vulnerable, our seniors who have worked their entire lives to have a good retirement, we’re seeing their retirements vanish in an instant by these fraudsters," said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Heith Janke. "We want to warn our elderly community to not fall victim but we [also] want to get these scammers that are targeting them, and remove them from the ability to steal anymore of those life savings from the elderly community."
Isaiah Thomas was arrested earlier and has since posted bond.
If convicted, both face up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine for each count.
The case is brought as part of the Elder Justice Initiative. Its goal is to support and coordinate the Department of Justice’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s older adults.