A Texas man pretending to be a extremely educated particular operations veteran was discovered responsible of defrauding victims out of thousands and thousands by claiming drug cartels have been focusing on them and he may shield them for a steep value.
Kota Youngblood, 52, also referred to as Saint Jovite Youngblood, was sentenced to 40 years in jail on Wednesday in Austin for conning 32 folks out of greater than $12 million in a scheme dated again to no less than 2010, in response to the Division of Justice.
Youngblood, from Manor, a city about 15 miles outdoors of Austin, satisfied his victims {that a} Mexican drug cartel was after them and supplied them and their family members safety in alternate for cash.
Throughout a recorded dialog with an undercover FBI agent in Could 2023, Youngblood stated he at the moment “freelanced” for the Division of Protection, in response to court docket paperwork.
He claimed to have served 22 years within the Military’s 82nd Airborne Division and Delta Power, a extremely covert and elite Military particular operations power a part of the Joint Particular Operations Command, regardless of FBI investigators discovering no navy service information.
Investigators discovered that the fraudster instructed his victims he may shield them and their family members utilizing his expertise and connections as a particular operator.
“A lot of Youngblood’s victims have been terrorized considering their households have been at risk; others misplaced their livelihoods to his schemes,” FBI Particular Agent Aaron Tapp stated.
Certainly one of his victims testified in opposition to Youngblood in federal court docket in Austin in Aug. 2023, saying that he had identified him for round six years and their sons have been on the identical hockey group.
The scammer had his son inform the sufferer that his father wanted to talk with him a few “scenario” involving his ex-wife.
Youngblood then claimed that he and his household “have been in grave hazard,” alleging that his ex-wife was blended up with a Mexican drug cartel.
He instructed the sufferer that his ex was making an attempt to have him killed to money in on a $6.5 million life insurance coverage coverage in his identify.
Youngblood then claimed he obtained audio of the ex-wife and cartel members hiring a hitman to kill him by means of a good friend on the Nationwide Safety Company.
He then requested cash from the sufferer to guard them and his household. The sufferer wrote him a $70,000 examine for his pretend companies and later gave him two extra funds of $86,000 and $83,000.
Investigators discovered that the scammer “focused a lot of people from his son’s hockey group.”
Youngblood used intermediaries between himself and his victims to hide his actions whereas operating his con. Based on investigators, he arrange in-person conferences and prevented discussing his plans over the cellphone or through e-mail.
He additionally instructed his victims—who he known as “buyers”—that the funds can be “paid again with a major return on the cash.”
Accepting examine funds funneled by means of a enterprise affiliate, he instructed his victims the funds to guard their households would double as enterprise investments and provides returns.
Nonetheless, investigators discovered that the con artist gambled a lot of the cash away in Las Vegas.
“This fraudster developed shut relationships with dozens of people, constructing an immense quantity of belief seemingly simply to destroy their lives financially by means of elaborate, deceitful misrepresentations,” US Lawyer Jaime Esparza stated.
The con man was caught after the sufferer, whose son performed on the identical hockey group as Youngblood’s son, started working with the FBI after he by no means obtained his a reimbursement.
Youngblood was arrested in July 2023 at Austin-Bergstrom Worldwide Airport on his method to Las Vegas.
The fraudster was positioned in a Waco detention middle and went to trial in April, the place he was convicted of 4 counts of wire fraud and one rely of cash laundering.
Along with the 480 months in jail, he was ordered to pay full restitution of $12,766,384.
“The 40-year sentence that Youngblood will now serve in federal jail, together with the complete restitution paid again to the victims, demonstrates the gravity of those crimes, and it’s my hope that the people and households impacted by his schemes are capable of restore any loss they’ve suffered,” Esparza stated.
“Due to our companions on the FBI for his or her investigative efforts that assisted enormously with this profitable end result of justice.”
