Minnesota Attorney General's Office
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Thursday, August 30, 2007
Attorney General Obtains Guilty Plea in Case Involving Living Trust Salesman
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson announced today that Percy Persons of Fargo, North Dakota, plead guilty on August 28, 2007 to two felony counts of Theft by False Representation in an amount over $35,000.
This case involved a scheme whereby over the course of 18 months, Persons stole $206,000 from a women in her 70s who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and is an insulin-dependant diabetic. Persons appeared on the victim’s door-step in February 2001, only one month after the death of her husband, under the guise of being a door-to-door salesman selling living trusts. In doing so, Persons was able to obtain a list of the Victim’s assets.
“Under the guise of selling his victim a living trust, Mr. Persons used fear, intimidation, and persuasion to swindle a 78-year-old Wilkin County woman suffering from Parkinson’s disease and hearing loss out of $206,000.”
An investigation into Persons by the Wilkin County Sheriff’s Department and the Attorney General’s Office found that Persons went to the Victim’s home in excess of 25 times over a period of 18 months requesting “loans” from the Victim. At first the “loans” were memorialized in a Promissory Note drafted by Persons which only required the Victim’s signature. As time went on, Persons did not even bother to draft Promissory Notes when he “borrowed” money. The Victim was intimidated by the size and manner in which Persons requested the loans. Persons stood over the Victim as she wrote the checks: she was fearful of what he would do to her if she did not sign the documents and turn over the checks. Persons had the Victim write a clause in one of the Promissory Notes that if she died before Persons, all the “loans” would be forgiven. The Victim cashed in several CD’s in order to meet Persons demands for money, draining all of her liquid assets.
Persons will be scheduled for sentencing upon the completion of a pre-sentence investigation by a probation agent. Defendant plead to counts I and III of the criminal complaint, both which were Felony counts of Theft by False Representation, over $35,000. Persons made a lump sum restitution payment of $10,000.00. The active portion of the sentence will include a stay of execution of 27 months to the Commissioner of Corrections; 45 days in jail; up to 15 years probation; restitution of the remaining $181,000.00; no contact with the victim; no contact with, or employment involving direct contact with vulnerable adults; and any remaining conditions at the discretion of the court.