Holiday Woman Headed To Prison For Telemarketing Scheme

TAMPA, FL — A 50-year-old Holiday woman was sentenced Thursday to five years and three months in federal prison after pleading guilty to scamming more than $1.38 million from people around the country in a telemarketing scheme.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington sentenced Lori Owen, aka Lori Corrigan, for conspiracy to commit bank, wire and mail fraud. As part of her sentence, the court ordered her to pay restitution to her victims in the amount of $620,103.

According to court documents, Owen was charged in December for her involvement in a telemarketing scam—primarily tax impersonation fraud—that operated from December 2014 through the end of 2016.

Those involved in the scam, some of whom were located overseas, extorted money from people by convincing the victims they owed money to the Internal Revenue Service, Canadian tax authorities or other entities.

The scammers then threatened the victims with arrest, prosecution or other legal consequences if they didn't pay the “owed” money.

Owen worked with others—including her ex-husband, David Owen, and her son, Andrew Corrigan—to collect the fraud proceeds on behalf of the overseas call centers.

They accomplished this by opening bank accounts and making cash deposits from victims, receiving wire transfers directly from the conspirators; processing prepaid debit cards that the victims purchased through merchant accounts that Lori Owen opened and controlled and receiving cashier’s checks purchased by the victims.

The conspirators monitored the victims’ payments to ensure that the payments were recovered before the victim or law enforcement became aware of the fraud and attempted to stop the transaction.

David Owen and Andrew Corrigan were previously charged and convicted of similar offenses for their roles in this scheme. Owen was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in federal prison and Corrigan was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Lori Owen pleaded guilty on April 19.

“Impersonating the IRS, the Canadian Revenue Agency or any other financial institutions to attempt to fraudulently collect a debt is deplorable because it shakes the confidence taxpayers have in these institutions,” said Brian Payne, IRS criminal investigation special agent in charge. “The lengthy sentencing of all the defendants in this investigation reflect the seriousness of the charges and should stand as a clear warning of the consequences that await those engaged in these scams.”

The cases were investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, the Largo Police Department, the Gulfport Police Department, the Toronto Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as part of the Middle District of Florida’s Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force.