Wife Defrauded Husband Of $600K Over 20 Years: East Haven Police

EAST HAVEN, CT — Police arrested a 63-year-old woman, who they allege, over decades, forged her husband's signature on legal documents to defraud him of $600,000 in pension and Social Security checks and other monies.

The fraud accusations were first reported to police in March 2020 when two people went to police to report "large-scale fraud," according to police Capt. Joseph M. Murgo.

One was the victim, her husband, who told police that his wife, Donna Marino, began "stealing his money" in 1999, and that she had "controlled all of his finances during their time together and that he had no idea that she was stealing from him," according to Murgo.

An investigation by Sgt. Gregory Borer found that "Marino would forge her husband’s signature on his pension checks, Social Security checks, worker’s compensation settlements, and other legal documents, before depositing the funds in a secret bank account without his knowledge," Murgo said.

The husband was "unaware of his wife’s activities until it was brought to his attention in March 2019," and that he had taken time to "consider his options, (and) he decided to file a formal complaint," police said.

Murgo said that the investigation revealed that Marino "fraudulently obtained power of attorney for her husband by having a friend, who is a notary public, sign the legal document when her husband was not present. She then used her Power of Attorney status to fraudulently file taxes in her husband’s name."

And he said that Marino herself told "investigators that she was able to hide her fraudulent activities over the years by convincing her husband that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease."

"She believed that convincing him that he had Alzheimer’s disease would prevent him from going to the bank, ultimately, to discover the low balances on his accounts," Murgo said. Police also said Marino told them she'd "pawned some of her husband’s belongings, including jewelry and rare coins, without his knowledge or consent ... and (told) investigators that the mismanaged money was often used to help her other family members with things like rent, groceries and car payments, without her husband’s knowledge or consent."

Marino turned herself into police headquarters Wednesday and was charged with first-degree larceny and third-degree forgery. Held on a $25,000 court-set bond, she appeared before a judge Thursday.