An Atlanta-area woman admitted to working with others from Georgia to scam people out of money by demanding bogus bond payments. Victims included people from Crystal City and McPherson, Kansas, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office reported.
Ariel Burden, 33, on Sept. 3 pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 14, the report said.
Wire fraud carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Burden also will be ordered to repay the money, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
According to the guilty plea, Burden traveled on Feb. 27-28, 2024, from Georgia to Crystal City and McPherson to collect money from the victims. She collected a total of $28,000 from three victims.
The people working with Burden would call victims and use a technique known as “spoofing” to make the number that appeared on victims’ phones appear to be from area law enforcement agencies. The person on the phone would tell the victim that they failed to appear in a court and a warrant was issued for their arrest, the plea said.
The victims would then be told they could pay a bondswoman named “Jennifer Davis” to avoid going to jail. The victim would be instructed to go to a local government building, such as a courthouse or city hall, to pay the fine, according to the plea.
Burden would pretend to be Davis when the victims arrived. She would collect their money and then issue a fake receipt for the payment, the plea said.
On Feb. 28, Burden went to the Crystal City Hall to collect payment from a victim. She met the victim outside of City Hall, collected $12,000 and provided a receipt that had a fake citation number and a line noting the payment was to Crystal City Court, according to the plea agreement.
Burden then got into a Ford Fusion and left. She and the people she worked with were stopped in the Fusion in Lexington, Ky., and arrested, the plea said.
According to the guilty plea, Burden collected $7,000 from one victim and $9,000 from another victim in McPherson.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, along with the Jefferson County and Missouri sheriff’s offices and McPherson Police, investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf is prosecuting the case.