An apparent scam that targeted members of the Sweet Home Senior Center three years ago has resulted in the arrest of a California woman on fraud charges.
Dena Peterman, 32, who reportedly also goes by the name of Dena Buttram, of Little Rock, Calif., located northeast of Los Angeles, is charged by a federal grand jury in an eight-count indictment with conspiracy, aggravated identity theft and six counts of mail fraud.
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, over the course of two years, Peterman and her co-conspirators allegedly stole Social Security numbers and other personal identifying information that was used to commit unemployment insurance fraud. According to court documents, Peterman and her co-conspirators targeted senior citizens as part of the scam, obtaining Social Security numbers and other personal data from the elderly victims in Oregon and California by telling them that they had an opportunity to be cast in remakes of the 1985 movie “Cocoon” and the 1981 film “On Golden Pond.”
The Los Angeles Times reported that one of Peterman’s victims told authorities he interviewed with a movie company representative who visited the Senior Center in Sweet Home, looking for actors.
Sweet Home police cautioned seniors about a solicitation flyer posted in the area in late June 2012. The flier indicated that the film would be a “remake” of “Cocoon.” It offered the seniors $300 per day, with shooting over six days in a park area around a small spring, a total cash promise of $90,000.
According to a report in The New Era at the time, around 20 seniors may have responded to the call, giving up their Social Security numbers to the man. A number of them have contacted the Sweet Home Police Department and newspaper after becoming concerned that the casting call might be a scam.
According to the DOJ statement, once they had obtained the personal information, Peterman and her co-conspirators allegedly created bogus companies supposedly related to the movie industry, submitted false wage information for the elderly victims and other individuals whom they falsely claimed worked for these companies, and submitted bogus unemployment insurance claims in the names of these individuals. The California Employment Development Department subsequently provided unemployment insurance benefits in the names of these individuals through debit cards that were mailed to addresses that Peterman or her co-conspirators controlled.
As a result of this scheme, investigators believe that the EDD suffered losses of approximately $500,000.
Peterman was arrested on May 18 pursuant to a criminal complaint that had been filed in federal court. A United States magistrate judge ordered that Peterman be held without bond. She was scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment on June 5.
If convicted of the charges in the indictment, Peterman would face a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison on the conspiracy, up to 20 years for each mail fraud count, and a mandatory consecutive two-year sentence for the identity theft count, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
This case is the result of a joint investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General and the California Employment Development Department.