A Florida man impersonating tech titan Elon Musk was arrested on Tuesday night for scamming an elderly woman. According to US media reports, businessman Jeffrey Arthur Moynihan Jr was apprehended at his Bradenton home.
Under Musk’s false identity, the 56-year-old man reached out to the elderly victim, a 74-year-old Texas resident, on Facebook in 2023. Now charged with grand theft, the businessman promised the woman a $55 million return on investment. However, the Texas individual was reportedly scammed out of at least a quarter of a million dollars. Her husband reported the total amount was $600,000.
Also read |‘Loud bang’ outside US embassy in London causes area lockdown; police responds
Texas victim believed she was actually talking to the real Elon Musk
On November 22, The New York Post reported that the woman “felt like Elon really was her friend.” She was convinced that Elon was, in fact, on the other end of those online interactions as the con man would regularly inform her about “Elon’s” day. His briefing would often rely on recent Musk-related news stories. Bodycam footage shows police walking towards a shirtless Moynihan, discussing the details of his arrest.
He is heard questioning the nature of the “grand theft” he was being accused of. The Elon Musk impersonator eventually tells the authorities that the $250,000 transferred into his account was for a girlfriend he is believed to have a purely virtual relationship with. The police department suspects that he, too, is a victim of a separate scheme.
Bradenton Police confirm Elon Musk himself is not under investigation
According to a department spokesperson, Bradenton Police detective Jim Curulla is behind the investigation. Authorities in Frisco, Texas, previously intimated to him about an incident in which a victim had purportedly unloaded a massive amount of money to someone presenting himself as the SpaceX CEO. The police have since said in a press release, “The real Elon Musk was otherwise engaged with the most recent launch of SpaceX and is not under investigation by BPD.”
Also read | Elon Musk fumes at ‘ridiculously slow & difficult’ US legal immigration after Riley Gaines’ green card-vaccine rant
Officials reportedly traced a sizeable chunk of that amount to Bradenton banks. Further investigation determined that Moynihan was the person behind these accounts and $250,000 was transferred to them. The accounts also belonged to the scammer’s business, Jeff’s Painting and Pressure Washing LLC.
Local authorities in Texas are trying to figure out the whereabouts of the victim’s remaining money.
