GRANBURY, Texas — A man who helped a retired FBI agent con a North Texas woman out of $700,000 by convincing her she was on “secret probation” was sentenced to 70 months, or nearly six years, in prison, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton announced.
Joseph Eventino DeLeon, 63, was indicted in December 2021, officials say. A jury convicted DeLeon and the retired FBI agent, William Stone, on conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges in February, according to the DOJ. Stone was also convicted of five counts of wire fraud, one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity, and one count of false impersonation of a federal officer.
DeLeon, for his part, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $765,320.37 in restitution, officials say.
Stone was sentenced to 87 months in prison, or more than 7 years, in February.
Stone convinced the woman that she was under “secret probation” for federal drug crimes in “Judge Anderson’s court in Austin, Texas,” according to evidence presented at trial.
Stone and DeLeon told the woman a fictitious federal judge had appointed them to administer the conditions of her six-year “secret probation,” officials say.
They required her to text them written reports of her daily activities and to compensate them for their supervisory services and expenses, according to officials.
Copies of five- and six-figure checks were admitted into evidence at trial. Over the course of 11 months, the woman gave Stone more than $700,000 and DeLeon more than $50,000, according to the evidence presented at trial.
Stone and DeLeon told the woman she was prohibited from disclosing her probation status and would risk imprisonment and loss of her children if she did not comply with the terms of her probation, according to the DOJ.
When the woman began to question the situation, Stone assured her everything he’d done was “legit,” officials say.
Stone and DeLeon urged her to distance herself from her family, claiming her family members wanted to take her inheritance away from her, and persuaded her to transfer her inherited assets out of a trust and into an account under her own name.
At one point, Stone and DeLeon claimed Judge Anderson would discharge the woman’s probation if she agreed to marry Stone.
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