NORFOLK, Va. – Harry Randall Withers, 38, was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for defrauding a woman of approximately $377,000 based on false
statements.
Harry Randall Withers
On June 27, Winters pleaded guilty to wire fraud and engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property.
Court documents say Withers lied to a woman to persuade her to marry him and lend him $377,000.
Withers told the woman he was the owner of a wine and cheese bar and that his employees embezzled from him, when in reality he was the manager of the bar and had embezzled from the actual owner.
Withers told the woman he was a member of a wealthy family that founded Union Camp Corporation, a pulp and paper company that was aquired by International Paper. He told her his grandmother had died and left him a large inheritance that he would use to repay a loan and that the IRS froze his bank accounts.
Withers told the victim that if they were married, it would solve tax and legal issues that were preventing him from getting the money and that he would be able to repay her.
The woman married Withers and lent him the money, which he used for his own benefit without any intention of repaying her.
He wrote a series of checks that were supposed to be in partial repayment of the money the woman lent him, but they were written on funds that had insufficient funds or were closed.
He also forged the woman’s signature on checks written on her account that he made payable to himself.
