A Washington, D.C., woman was found guilty of stealing more than $400,000 from a Silver Spring man after meeting him on a dating site, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The Verdict
Janey Sears, 72, was found guilty Tuesday after jurors deliberated for 75 minutes, according to prosecutors.
Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 28 when she faces a maximum sentence 23 years in prison.
The Scheme
Sears met the Silver Spring resident, a single federal employee in his 50s, on a dating site in September 2019, according to the state’s attorney. Between 2021 and 2023, the state’s attorney said she scammed him out of $406,954.
Prosecutors said Sears also went by the names “Janay St. Clair” and “JaNay St. Clair-Sears” and presented herself as a Harvard-educated businesswoman who owned a transportation logistics company.
After their first in-person meeting, Sears asked to stay in the victim’s home overnight because it would be convenient for her to get to a business meeting in Baltimore the next morning. Later that fall, in November 2019, the man agreed she could move in with him.
In 2020, the victim allowed Sears help him secure a $150,000 loan to finance home improvement projects. In 2021, she encouraged him to contribute to a stock “investment pool” that she said would usually only be available to wealthy people like herself.
The victim made regular monthly contributions for almost two years. He was under the impression that he was giving Sears the money so she could invest it, said prosecutors. Evidence presented at trial showed Sears, instead, put all the funds into her personal bank accounts, spending $55,000 on a car. Sears falsly told the victim that she said she got the vehicle from her father. She gambled away more than $100,000 at casinos in Maryland and New Jersey, according to the state’s attorney.
Prosecutors Call Scheme a “Web of Lies”
“The defendant groomed the victim, gaining his trust, and deceived him into believing she was acting in his best interest,” said John McCarthy, state’s attorney for Montgomery County in a written statement. “We are grateful that the jury saw through the defendant’s web of lies and that justice will be served. The State will seek incarceration for this defendant and restitution for the victim at the sentencing hearing.”
Featured photo courtesy Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
