Woman scammed Bradenton man out of $100,000 in Tesla fraud case, police say
Police arrested a woman accused of scamming a 66-year-old Bradenton man out of $100,000 in an elaborate fraud scheme.
On Monday the Bradenton Police Department’s Elder Fraud Unit and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina arrested Elizabeth Ann Hildbrand, 51, on charges of grand theft and money laundering, police said.
In February, the victim filed a report with Bradenton police, saying that he had invested about $300,000 over two years into an online company called “Tesla 1,” according to police.
The victim realized he had been scammed when he attempted to withdraw money from his “Tesla 1” account, according to the police department.
The victim said he was communicating via text message and Telegram with two individuals posing as brokers. One was Hildbrand, police said.
NC woman scammed Bradenton man, police say
The police department said that financial records showed the victim transferred over $87,500 through wire transfers and cashier’s checks to bank accounts owned by Hildbrand. The man also purchased Apple gift cards for $22,500 and provided the card information to people he believed were brokers.
An unknown amount of cash was also mailed to those individuals, police said.
Police say they determined that Hildbrand deposited the victim’s money into her accounts and made cryptocurrency transactions as well.
After she was arrested, Hildbrand spoke with a Bradenton detective and said she believed she had a romantic relationship with Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and one of the richest people in the world, and had agreed to help the billionaire buy cryptocurrency.
Hildbrand said she had fallen victim to a romance scam, but detectives said she continued to accept the Bradenton man’s money and transfer it into cryptocurrency.
Hildbrand is awaiting extradition to Manatee County, the police department said.
Last year, crimes investigated by Bradenton’s Elder Fraud Unit totalled about $8 million in reported losses due to scammers. The police department said that this year, the unit has investigated losses of at least $750,000.
