Connecticut Resident Sentenced for Defrauding Elderly Family and Friends

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Robert Oathout, 37, of Hartford, Conn., was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Providence, R.I., on Monday to 63 months in prison for defrauding elderly family members and family friends of more than $447,000. According to court documents, Oathout told the victims that he needed to borrow the money to pay medical expenses in advance of his receipt of a one million dollar settlement payment as the result of a botched medical procedure performed on him at a Connecticut medical facility. Oathout told the victims that the medical facility would repay them upon payment of the settlement.

An investigation by the FBI determined that no such medical procedure was performed on Oathout and that he was not due any settlement payments from the medical facility.

Robert Oathout pleaded guilty on July 16, 2017, to eight counts of wire fraud.

At sentencing, U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith also ordered Oathout to serve 3 years supervised release upon completion of his term of incarceration and to pay restitution to the victims in the amount of $434,635.75.  The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines range of imprisonment in this matter is 63-78 months. The government recommended the court impose a sentence of 63 months in incarceration.

Robert Oathout’s sentence is announced by Acting United States Attorney Stephen G. Dambruch and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Field Division.

According to information provided to the Court, as part of the scheme, between September 27, 2013, and December 22, 2015, Oathout induced his victims, all between the ages of 67 an 87 years, to transfer a total of $447,267.25 to him electronically. Electronic transfers of varying amounts were made to Oathout before, while and after he was a federal inmate at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, R.I. Some of the funds were transferred into his and other inmates’ prison accounts while he was being detained on federal drug charges in an unrelated case brought against him by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.

The fraud case in the District of Rhode Island was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra R. Hebert. The matter was investigated by the FBI.

Acting United States Attorney Stephen G. Dambruch and Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Field Division, acknowledge and thank investigators at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center for their assistance in the investigation of this matter.

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