Local woman lost thousands of dollars in scam

Victim warns others to take precautions after being duped by Las Vegas couple

A Calgary woman says she lost more than US$130,000 after a Las Vegas couple pleaded guilty this spring to an investment scam involving resort condos.

Tammy Ingram says she had been friends with Marlene Fitzgerald, a former Calgarian, for more than 10 years but never thought she would end up losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because of it.

Ingram wants to warn other Calgarians about Fitzgerald — who in the past has gone by Marlene Bragas or Marlene Trawinksi — in case they were also scammed.

“I went down many times (to Vegas) as did a bunch of us. She was screwing us over the whole time,” said Ingram.

“For all I know she’s ripped off a bunch more people in Calgary. She was born here, she has friends here, I just want people to be warned.”

It all started when Ingram went to Las Vegas in 2005 with a mutual friend of Ingram, Fitzgerald, and Fitzgerald’s husband, Marcus.

Ingram said after she had visited a number of times, the Fitzgeralds asked if she wanted to invest in some resort condos along the Vegas strip. Ingram, along with a few other friends of the Fitzgeralds, decided to invest and receive a small percentage of ownership.

Ingram said the Fitzgeralds provided documentation and contracts that seemed legitimate but were later found to be fraudulent.

Along with the real estate investments, Ingram said the Fitzgeralds were sponsoring green cards, so those investing would be able to work with them in the U.S.

“Once (Marlene) was given grief over these payouts, I thought, ‘I’m definitely not going to go work for these people if I’m having problems with them now.’ So I went to the airport and spoke to U.S. immigration,” said Ingram.

“We had a look at my (information) and there was no green card application for me pending.”

That’s when everything “imploded” and Ingram went to the police. The attorney general investigated for a year and, in 2015, the Fitzgeralds went to court. The couple were both charged with 11 counts related to securities fraud and theft of more than US$3,500.

According to court documents, Marlene Fitzgerald pleaded guilty to the charges in May of this year, while her husband pleaded guilty in June. More than a dozen victims — nine of which Ingram said are also from Calgary — were scammed out of more than US$360,000. But it didn’t stop there. While Marlene Fitzgerald was being investigated for real estate fraud, in 2016 she started a separate scam in which she promised to secure performances from entertainers such as Justin Bieber.

She was subsequently charged with and pleaded guilty to five counts of theft over US$3,500, and is facing sentencing on Wednesday in that case.

Ingram is warning others looking to invest to go “above and beyond” when going through background checks.

Marlene is expected to be sentenced in relation to the real estate fraud in October.