Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010Utah woman going to prison for scamming dozens, including widow, Iraq solider
SALT LAKE CITY — A widow on a fixed income decided to invest a small inheritance with a Utah woman offering a quick return on a property deal on the island of Molokai in Hawaii.
Professed real estate expert Jolee M. Tibbitts told Joyce Robinson she owned five-acre parcels of prime beachfront and interior land for sale at $15,000 each. She claimed the interior properties had to be resold to island natives for $45,000 before any oceanfront parcels could be sold, netting a quick $30,000 profit. Robinson decided to invest $60,000 she received from her father's estate.
"This is money I absolutely cannot lose," Robinson said she told Tibbitts.
"Not in a million years would you lose this," she said Tibbitts replied.
Tibbitts, it turned out, didn't own property in Hawaii.
"I don't think she lives in reality," Robinson said. "I don't know if she will ever live in reality."
In all, 42 investors — about half from Utah — lost a total of $1.2 million in Tibbitts' scam, which ended with her arrest last year.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson sentenced Tibbitts, 42, to four years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. He also ordered her to pay $1 million in restitution. She is to report for incarceration Dec. 10. Tibbitts, of Herriman, earlier pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in exchange for federal prosecutors dropping five other charges.
Prosecutor Mark Hirata said this was not a real estate investment gone bad. There never was property to invest in.
"Make no mistake, this was outright theft," he told the judge. "This was fraud from the word go."
Tibbitts strung investors along for months in 2007 by making excuses such as real estate deals take longer in Hawaii and the state intervened in the sale, resulting in a delay. She used $187,000 of the money to pay eight investors and kept the rest for herself.
Investor Robert Vota testified that while deployed on military duty in Iraq, he received e-mails from Tibbitts and her company attorney promising his money and praising his service.
"I was defending his and her freedom all the while they were scamming me," he said.
Colin Archuleta, who lost $60,000, said Tibbitts in one meeting used her 11-year-old son as a "prop," claiming she had created a foundation in his name.
Tibbitts' criminal defense lawyer Daphne Oberg said her client got caught up in the fast lane after going from a menial job in a real estate firm to the face of the company. The company, she said, made her a motivational speaker and real estate expert without any training and no more than a high school diploma because she had appeal. Her personal income increased fivefold in two years.
"She felt invincible, but she lacked focus. She lost touch with the truth and spun out of control," Oberg said.
Tibbitts, who repeatedly dabbed her eyes with a tissue during the hearing, apologized to the victims in the courtroom for the "hurt and anguish" she caused and promised to "work the rest of my life to make it up to you."
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700076816/Utah-woman-going-to-prison-for-scamming-dozens-including-widow-Iraq-solider.html
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