A 73-year-old D.C. woman who prosecutors say moved in with a man she met through an online dating site — then persuaded him to pour more than $400,000 into a phony investment scheme — has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to the Montgomery County, Maryland, State’s Attorney’s Office.
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge John Maloney sentenced Janey Sears on Friday to 20 years in prison, suspending all but 15 years. Sears will serve five years of supervised probation following her release and was ordered to pay $406,954 in restitution, at a rate of $10,000 a month, after she leaves prison.
She had faced more than 20 years in prison.
Sears, whose aliases include Janay St. Clair and JaNay St. Clair-Sears, was found guilty of securities fraud, misappropriation of funds by a fiduciary and other charges, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Sears used $55,000 of the money to buy a 2022 Alfa Romeo Giulia, while telling the man, a federal worker, that her father had given her the car. She also gambled away more than $100,000 at casinos, including MGM, Maryland Live and Ocean Resort Casino in New Jersey.
A jury had convicted Sears on July 7 of theft scheme over $100,000, securities fraud and misappropriation of funds by a fiduciary after deliberating for 75 minutes following a two-day trial.
“The defendant groomed the victim, gaining his trust, and deceived him into believing she was acting in his best interest,” prosecutors said following her conviction in July.
Prosecutors said Sears met the victim, a single federal employee in his 50s, on an online dating site in September 2019. Sears presented herself as a Harvard-educated businesswoman who owned a transportation logistics company in D.C., according to prosecutors.
After their first in-person meeting, Sears convinced the man to let her spend the night at his Silver Spring home and then eventually moved in in November 2019.
Prosecutors said Sears then talked the man into some home improvement projects and suggested he get a home equity line of credit to help pay for them. With Sears’ encouragement, he secured a $150,000 loan in May 2020.
The following year, prosecutors said, Sears told the man that he could contribute money to an “investment pool” that would buy Pfizer stock and potentially make him “financially independent.” Sears allegedly claimed the opportunity would ordinarily be available only to wealthy investors like her.
From August 2021 through May 2023, the man made regular payments to Sears, handing over money through checks, wire transfers and cash that he believed she was investing on his behalf.
But prosecutors said there was no investment pool. Instead, Sears deposited the money into her own accounts.
Over less than two years, the man turned over a total of $406,954.
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