Montana Man Gets Four Years For Duping Elderly Woman Out Of $600K+, Leaving Her Financially Ruined, Rendered Homeless To Foreclosure

In Billings, Montana, the Billings Gazette reports:

• As Billings resident Mitchell John Romersa chased his dream of becoming a country singer, he turned the life of one his supporters into a nightmare.
  
  [Last week], Anne Kero, an elderly Bozeman woman whom Romersa left financially ruined, watched as Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull sentenced Romersa to four years in prison for wire fraud and money-laundering convictions.

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• In 2009, when Kero, who formerly lived in the Billings area, became homeless from a Romersa-related foreclosure, Romersa was still living in a 3,200-square-foot house on 10 acres, driving nice vehicles and giving Kero “false promises,” Cebull said.

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• Kero, 74, testified at the hearing that she trusted Romersa, whom she had met through her late husband. “I was his surrogate grandma. He was short of money” as he tried to launch his singing career, she said.
  
  Kero started lending Romersa money in 2003. By the time Romersa’s scheme imploded in 2008, Kero had given him more than $697,000, including money from refinancing her home, which she lost to foreclosure, and from cashing out annuities.
  
  Romersa paid back $51,224, leaving $645,776 still owed to Kero, not including interest, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Victoria Francis.

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• Romersa scammed others as well, Kero said, using the money to live a lifestyle he thought he deserved. Kero said she was too embarrassed to tell anyone what was happening but finally called her brother when she had to leave her house because of the foreclosure. She ultimately contacted law enforcement.

For the story, see Country singer sent to prison for fraud.