Indictment Charges South Windsor Man With Defrauding Grandparents

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — A grand jury in New Haven has returned an indictment against a South Windsor man, charging him with offenses related to defrauding his grandparents of nearly $680,000.

Douglas Senerth, 32, was charged with three counts of wire fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years on each count., according to Leonard C. Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

The indictment was returned on June 7, and Senerth appeared Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Richardson in Hartford and entered a plea of not guilty. He has been detained in state custody since Feb. 10, when he was arrested on unrelated charges, Boyle said.

The indictment claims Senerth defrauded his grandmother and his late grandfather by falsely claiming to be a college student and inducing them to give him about $419,000 to pay for nonexistent college tuition and other related expenses, and about $260,000 more by falsely claiming he would invest their money into an investment fund run by one of his nonexistent professors. As part of the scheme, Senerth created fraudulent college transcripts, letters and email accounts that he used to corroborate his lies, Boyle said.

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