A federal indictment unsealed today indicates a Nixa man ripped off an elderly Joplin couple, threatened a potential witness, and tried to cover up his crime by making it seem like the Joplin man had beaten his wife.
The grand jury issued a 23-count indictment, including six counts of bank fraud, 11 counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of witness tampering against Terry Parker, 57, owner of Alliance Contracting.
Court documents indicate the Joplin couple, the wife is 88 and the husband 84, had a significant portion of their house damaged in the May 22, 2011, tornado. The husband has been battling cancer, while the wife required home care and nursing assistance.
The indictment shows Parker insinuated himself into the couple's home, taking over their office area, and then had them pay for installation of internet service (the couple did not own a computer). Without the couple's permission, Parker allegedly had their banking account changed so that the couple would no longer receive paper statements, but the information would go directly to Parker online.
Parker created a PayPal account in the Joplin man's name and began putting money into that account, according to the indictment. He transferred more than $34,000 from that account into his own PayPal account.
PayPal officials made an effort to determine if the transfers were legitimate, calling the Joplin man, referred to as "H.B." in court documents. Since H. B. had no idea what they were talking about, he handed the phone to Parker, who claimed to be H. B. and said there weren't any problems.
Parker also allegedly forged H. B.'s signature on a check for $38,640.
Parker threatened one of H. B.'s caregivers, according to the indictment:
"In or around November 2011, Parker attempted to intimidate one of H.B.’s caregivers, identified herein as L.S., who had expressed concern regarding Parker’s taking advantage of H.B. In response, Parker stated to L.S. that she should be careful how she treated him (Parker), because one day H.B.’s house would belong to him."
Parker's scheme began to fall apart when H. B. visited Southwest Missouri Bank to determine why he was no longer receiving paper statements. At that point, H. B. discovered $34,420 had been electronically transferred out of his account and that the check for $38,640 had been forged.
"Immediately following H.B.’s report of the thefts to bank officials and filing of a police report, Parker filed a complaint with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which he then knew to be false, alleging that H.B. had abused his wife by striking her and failing to give her proper medication as prescribed by her physician."
On some of the charges, Parker can face up to 30 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.
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