FBI: Palatine man scammed out of $4.5 million helps capture suspect

A Costa Rican woman who authorities say scammed an 87-year-old Palatine man out of nearly $4.5 million over the last six years was captured by the FBI in New York last week when she flew to the U.S. hoping to collect $3.7 million more from the victim, according to federal court documents.

Corinne Dziesiuta, a 38-year-old former New Jersey resident who has lived in Costa Rica since 2010, faces federal mail and wire fraud charges stemming from the scheme, according to court documents unsealed this month.

The Palatine man, who is identified in the nine-page criminal complaint as Victim A, had been paying money to Dziesiuta and her associates in Costa Rica since May 2010, authorities say. Either Dziesiuta or one of her associates called the victim then and told him he had won millions of dollars in a sweepstakes, but the prize money was in foreign countries and he needed to pay insurance, taxes and other fees to receive the winnings, court documents state.

According to an FBI special agent's affidavit, Dziesiuta told the victim that her name was "Lisa Conti," she lived in New York City and worked for the federal government.

Other tactics Dziesiuta used to keep the Palatine man invested in the scheme include sending him a letter purportedly from a U.S. senator assuring him that the government was protecting him from being victimized, the affidavit states. Also in the letter, the man was informed he must pay $386,000 to re-register an insurance policy meant to protect his net worth of $600 million.

At some point this year, the affidavit states, the Palatine man began working with the FBI. Between May and September, he took part in 27 phone calls with Dziesiuta that were recorded by the FBI.

In one of those calls, he told Dziesiuta, at the FBI's instruction, that all future payments would have to be delivered in person. In August, Dziesiuta told him that she had made arrangements to travel to Palatine, but she later said she'd been hit by a cab in Times Square and had to cancel, authorities said.

Last week, Dziesiuta flew from Costa Rica to New York to collect a $3.7 million payment, documents state. Wearing a peach-colored dress so the Palatine man would be able to pick her out of the crowd, she was instead taken into custody by the FBI, documents state.

According to the federal complaint, Dziesiuta told FBI agents that she got involved with the scheme soon after moving to Costa Rica with her family in 2010. She said she got a job at a call center and admitted to speaking with the Palatine man for years.

Records indicate Dziesiuta is in custody in New York on $100,000 bail. No information about her next court appearance was available Monday.