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$25 Million AmEx Fraudster: Sleep Apnea Made Me Do It
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 29, 2011
Modified Mar 29, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 29, 2011
Modified Mar 29, 2011
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Corporate travel agent and paranormal romance novelist Victoria Wofford threw herself on the mercy of the court yesterday at her sentencing for Grand Larceny. Last May, Wofford pleaded guilty to making a whopping $25 million in fraudulent charges against American Express over the course of four years. Using two defunct business travel accounts belonging to one of her clients, she racked up millions in debt, using the money to develop software, purchase an apartment in Florida, invest in a restaurant chain, and support herself while she penned Lifelines, a "bewitching paranormal murder mystery" about "a beautiful redhead criminal lawyer and her past lives and loves as an ancient warrior and as a survivor in a burning Atlanta Civil War battle."
Wofford's lawyer said yesterday that most of the $17.5 million she actually pocketed was invested back in her software development business, and that she'd hoped to make enough off the software to repay AmEx before the credit card company caught on. But the software never took off like she'd hoped, Hollywood never came knocking for the movie rights to Lifelines, and that meddling Manhattan DA Cy Vance brought the hammer down. Yesterday she was hit with a three year sentence.
In court yesterday, Wofford described her crime as "a monumental lapse of judgment." And in a moment of self-reflection, she told the judge, "I'm not sure what I was thinking at the time, it may have had something to do with the undiagnosed sleep apnea that I apparently suffered from for many, many years." While the tabloids are treating this as a punchline, sleep apnea is nothing to sneeze at; Wikipedia tells us the disorder "is characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep." If only Wofford had worn the appropriate headgear, all this could have been avoided! But on the bright side, plenty of great paranormal murder mystery romance novels have been written in prison?
Tagged
american express
amex
credit card fraud
fraud
sleep apnea
victoria wofford
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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