Las Vegas woman faces 94 counts in telemarketing scheme

A Las Vegas woman has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 94 felony counts in a multimillion-dollar telemarketing scheme that defrauded small businesses.

Charlene Scott, 60, was charged Wednesday with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, 10 counts of mail fraud and 83 counts of wire fraud. A warrant has been issued for her arrest.

Federal prosecutors seek to recover more than $7.2 million in the funding scheme.

The indictment alleges that Scott, also known as Charlene Brown, and her unnamed co-conspirators made false promises to help small-business owners across the country obtain federal grants in return for fees.

“Defendant and her co-conspirators operated under multiple and evolving names to dissociate themselves from clients’ complaints made on the Internet and made with law enforcement and other entities,” the indictment says.

The names were Quid Corp., Interlan Charitable Foundation, Interlan Financial Corp., Compass National, Direct Business Co., Goldcom and Company Planning.

This is the fourth indictment since December in an FBI crackdown on telemarketing companies that defraud struggling small businesses.

Last month, FBI agents arrested three Las Vegas men, including Jason Demko, 38, in a scheme said to have swindled businesses of more than $3.5 million.

The indictment alleged that between December 2010 and the spring of 2013, Demko and his co-defendants operated illegally under the names Summit Business Consultants, Inner Circle Corp., Sierra Investment Group and Valley Business Development.

Demko, his mother and two other people were charged in January in another telemarketing scheme aimed at small-business owners. They were doing business as Foundation Processing Center between January 2013 and February 2014, according to the indictment.

In December, seven people were indicted in another boiler room operation said to have collected $26 million from 3,500 victims nationwide. Among those charged in the 38-count indictment was Mark Bausch, 40.

The indictment alleged the defendants carried out the scheme to defraud the small businesses from 2007 to 2010 through four telemarketing companies — Small Business Funding Co., Company Funds Inc., Foundation Research Inc. and Silver State Holding Co.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ.