A federal jury Thursday convicted a Mississippi woman of operating a scam with an Arkansas woman that tricked people across Arkansas and elsewhere into paying hundreds of dollars for services that never were performed.
Tiffany Rene Morris, also known as Tiffany Vann, was convicted on the main charge of wire-fraud conspiracy and five individual counts of wire fraud, which covered activities undertaken between September 2004 through March 2011. Jurors acquitted her on another wire-fraud charge stemming from a 2009 transaction.
Morris, of Southaven, Miss., and Sherrye LaJoyce Mance, of near Pine Bluff, were indicted jointly Jan. 8, 2014, on the conspiracy charge and seven wire-fraud counts, one of which focused on a transaction involving only Mance.
The Arkansas woman, who also has used the names Joyce Collins and Sherrye Collins, pleaded guilty last week to the conspiracy charge and agreed to testify against Morris in exchange for her other charges being dropped.
Victims of the scam testified at a trial this week in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. that the women conned them into paying at least $250 for "credit-repair services" that were promised to raise their credit scores, which would allow them to apply for lower-interest loans or federal grant money.
The victims testified that the women repeatedly admonished them for their impatience, repeating that the process could take awhile. The victims never saw their credit score change or received any grant money.
Valarie Nelson of Jacksonville, Fla., testified that Mance, a childhood friend, approached her about the "opportunity" after moving in with her, rent-free, to help while Nelson recovered from a serious automobile accident.
"She said, 'We have this program that you qualify for,'" Nelson recalled.
She said Mance explained how she could receive between $1,000 and $6,000 in grant money -- more if she helped recruit other friends and family members -- through the "program." Nelson said Mance explained that to receive grant money, she had to wire money through a MoneyGram outlet at a local Wal-Mart to Morris, who received the cash at a MoneyGram outlet at a Southaven Wal-Mart.
Nelson said she recruited 20-25 people, all of whom lost their money.
"I was eager to help other people," Nelson testified. "Sherrye had been so good to me."
She said her eagerness continued until one of her friends "did some research" and found that Mance had been written about "in the newspaper in Arkansas."
Mance was the subject of articles after the Arkansas attorney general's office filed a civil lawsuit in 2008 against her and Morris, resulting in a finding that the women had violated the state's Deceptive Trade Practices law with their scam.
Nelson testified that she confronted Mance about the articles, which Mance dismissed by saying she had been "questioned" but that "nothing came of that."
Nelson said Mance often had her call Morris about why she hadn't received grant money, but Morris always made excuses such as saying she'd been in the hospital, she had cancer, her dog had died or her husband was sick.
"Once, they said the system was down because of the change in presidents, and they couldn't get my money to me," Nelson told the jury of six men and six women.
Both women will be sentenced at a later date, after a pre-sentence investigation is conducted by U.S. probation officers.
Among the various names the women used for their "businesses" were Financial Services Unlimited and Credit Counseling Service, neither of which were incorporated in Arkansas.
Metro on 02/28/2015