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Family seeks answers after grandmother 'scammed'
A family is demanding answers after they say unlicensed contractors conned their grandmother out of nearly $100,000. FOX 9’s Mike Manzoni has details on the alleged scam that the family says all started when the woman wanted to renovate her house.
NEWPORT, Minn. (FOX 9) - The family of a now-deceased Newport woman said a pair of churchgoers took nearly $100,000 from her and used a portion of the money for home renovations that they never finished, something investigators said was not illegal even though state regulators called it "fraudulent" and "deceptive."
What we know
Cecelia Jenkins, 78, refinanced her home in January, five months after her husband died. She received nearly $80,000 from it and deposited the funds into another person’s bank account.
The account belonged to a woman she met at St. Albans Church in St. Paul years earlier. She and her husband agreed to use some of the money to renovate Jenkins’ house.
"I knew nothing about it, and I was her guardian and conservator," said Saran Crayton, her daughter. "The evangelist talked my mother into getting this new mortgage because she knew that she was vulnerable. She was still in mourning."
Document details
According to documents from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, the woman also posed as Jenkins’ daughter and filed a nearly $16,000 insurance claim to repair Jenkins’ hail-damaged roof.
But the agency said the couple did not have a license to do the work. It also said the couple hired other contractors, who also did not have a license.
Regulators slapped the pair with a $15,000 fine.
"The house is a mess," said Isis Jenkins, her granddaughter.
Jenkins died in April after suffering multiple strokes.
Jenkins has not recovered any portion of the $96,747.11. She also said she now owes $267,000 on her mother’s home, which she may lose.
State regulators also said the couple used more than $26,000 of the proceeds from the mortgage refinance to pay off a relative’s car lease.
"To have members of the church strip that equity and the promise that my parents had for us – it’s been devastating," she said. "There were so many balls dropped in this situation; it did not have to happen."
Next steps
The Washington County Sheriff's Office has closed the case, calling it a civil matter.
In a phone interview with FOX 9 on Monday, one of the contractors denied any wrongdoing.