Anatomy of the scam
Wedgeworth’s indictment said he devised his defrauding scheme from October 2016 through March 2021. Crime and arrest reports from 10 law enforcement agencies show that Wedgeworth began scamming over two decades ago.
At least seven women have filed complaints against him.
His alleged victims were reluctant to share their stories, but their narratives were outlined in police reports. They offer insight into what prosecutors described as Wedgeworth’s target demographic, his use of defrauded funds and his strategy for scamming.
All seven were Black women between the ages of 31 and 43 and lived in middle class households, averaging an annual income between $40,000 and $126,000. (Strong, independent women who don’t invest in feminine studies. Book smart but not street smart.)
Rather than pose as an entirely different person and target people over 60, Wedgeworth’s accusers said he targeted women within his age group and used his own likeness. He never hid his face or his voice, only his intentions.
HOW IT WENT
1. Wedgeworth offered to pay off massive debts like mortgages and student loans for them — while getting their banking, loan and personal information.
2. He appeared to pay the debts electronically, causing the women to get notifications that payments were made on their accounts.
3. Wedgeworth would then ask the women to give him money, buy him pricey gifts or he would make fraudulent charges or cash advances on the women’s’ accounts. And he had expensive tastes, buying multiple Rolex watches and tickets to the 2018 Sugar Bowl with Clemson and Alabama.
4. Here’s the catch though: Prosecutors say Wedgeworth paid the women’s’ debts using closed accounts with insufficient funds and by the time they learned his transactions didn’t go through, many were already out thousands of dollars!
Apart from the checks and wire transfers, his indictment said that Wedgeworth defrauded his victims of luxury goods like Rolex watches and a 2018 Sugar Bowl ticket.
Most scammers never get caught.
Romance scamming is becoming a more popular crime. Likelihood of conviction is usually low and the possible profits only grow higher the more people flock to digital dating.
Case reports obtained from the Alabama Trial Court System show 46 charges against Wedgeworth. He pleaded guilty to 13 of them. The guilty pleas in Jefferson County date as far back as 1996 and as recently as 2009. His charges include identity theft, forgery, possession of a fraudulent credit card, fraudulent checks and other white collar crimes.
Despite pleading guilty to 13 charges in Alabama alone, Wedgeworth seldom served a full sentence.
The man accused in the scam
Though crime and arrest reports show Wedgeworth has requested indulgent gifts and favors from his victims, there isn’t any evidence he led a life of luxury outside of his faux persona.
Wedgeworth grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. He lived with his parents in a household of five people until his mid-20s.
One Jefferson County court report from Dec. 18, 2009, estimated his personal net worth – including cash on hand and money in his bank accounts – at $1,000. At the time, he paid $164 every month in child support. That child support went up by more than $400 per month in 2013 when he established paternity for another child. All the while, he had no steady stream of income. He has spent the majority of his adult life divorced and unemployed, records show, save for a brief stint with the United States Coast Guard.
The wealthy medical professional who Wedgeworth pretended to be embodies everything that the man allegedly behind the scam is not: financially stable and on the precipice of building a connected family of his own.
Before the financial struggles and the fraud, Wedgeworth’s family said he was an easygoing teenager. He preached at his family’s Baptist church. He played youth football and Little League baseball. He was a popular student at Woodlawn High School – sociable, though still studious.
“I can’t honestly say when things went left,” said his younger sister Juanicca Wedgeworth, “but they did kind of early on, after high school.”
The last time Juanicca spoke to her brother was over a year ago on the phone. She doesn’t have his number; he doesn’t have hers. She said they have not spent a substantial amount of time with one another in over 15 years. Not long after he graduated from Woodlawn, he vanished.
“After adulthood, we haven’t really been in the same place,” she said. “He’s moved around a lot. And we’re adults, we have our own separate lives and children. So we’re not as close.”
She heard news of Wedgeworth’s multiple arrests through family chatter or local news. She said he has never spoken to her about any of the accusations against him. That lack of clarity left her in a gray area. For years, she wondered about his safety and whereabouts. It took a mental toll.
Juanicca said she and her brother grew up with a dysfunctional family. Their parents struggled with marital strife. Their relationship was on and off – the two divorced only to later remarry. Juanicca said she doesn’t think her brother ever got over that.
“I think as adults, we all get to a place where we realize that we need to do some unlearning and unparenting,” she said. “I don’t think Brian has reached that place.”
She said she never suspected her brother as capable of scamming. To her, that means other men she least suspects are capable of the same.
The reason I wrote the book “You Can’t Force A Man To Value You – Becoming A High Value Woman & Attracting Your Dream Man” is so that boss chicks would understand that YOU CANT BUY A MAN. STOP GIVING A MAN YOUR DARN MONEY.”
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