According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a Hawaii resident has entered a guilty plea for wire fraud after admitting to swindling an elderly individual in Orange County. John Tamahere McCabe of Kailua, Hawaii, acknowledged his role in a deceitful scheme that led to the victim's loss of nearly $2 million, as well as his home and yacht.
McCabe, 42, utilized false documents to illicitly transfer ownership of the yacht to himself illicitly and to deceitfully persuade the victim into transferring his Irvine home into a McCabe-controlled LLC. This sequence of actions eventually cost the victim his substantial assets, as McCabe failed to properly manage the funds, leaving the victim homeless.
In an orchestrated fraud, McCabe is said to have diverted the proceeds from the yacht sale to his own personal bank account. Furthermore, after positioning himself as the sole manager of the created LLC, McCabe is reported to have drained all equity from the victim's home by securing $1 million in loans, which were then defaulted on, forcing the house into a foreclosure sale.
As a result of these fraudulent activities, the victim was conned out of an estimated $1,814,000. In view of these actions, U.S. District Judge Fred W. Slaughter has scheduled a sentencing hearing for October 16, where McCabe will potentially face up to 20 years in a federal prison.
Investigations into this case were conducted by the FBI with assistance from the Irvine Police Department. First Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Waier is tasked with prosecuting the case. The DOJ has also made it clear that resources are available for elderly victims of financial fraud through the National Elder Fraud Hotline, which can be reached at 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). The hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, offers support in multiple languages and encourages reporting to not only help apprehend the culprits but also potentially aid in the recovery of financial losses due to fraud.
