An unemployed Ohio husband and wife with six children conned family and friends out of $800,000 by claiming he was suffering from cancer.
An unemployed Ohio husband and wife with six children conned family and friends out of $800,000 by claiming he was suffering from cancer.
Melanie Chen, 29, and Phylip Chen, 38, have each been indicted on counts of theft and receiving stolen property.
But authorities have been unable to find Melanie Chen since she failed to show up for the couple’s arraignment on March 2. A warrant was issued for her arrest yesterday.
Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost said the couple convinced about a dozen family members and friends that they needed the money to pay for Phylip Chen’s medical expenses.
Phylip Chen pleaded not guilty to the charges and was allowed to return to his children at his Columbus home. He claims no knowledge of his wife’s whereabouts.
Yost said the couple solicited money by making direct pleas to friends and family in California, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio from July 2005 to August 2008.
“People are kindhearted and when you think that somebody you care about is ill, it’s not like going to court where you want to see proof,” Yost said. “You trust your family to tell you the truth.”
Relatives contacted authorities after they grew suspicious and the couple were unable to produce documentation of Phylip Chen’s medical treatment.
“It was face-to-face networking kinds of stuff,” Yost said. “There was no softball benefit or those kinds of things.”
Phylip Chen told The Columbus Dispatch that he knew nothing of the scam and called his wife a pathological liar.
“I had no knowledge that my wife was saying that I was ill,” he said.
He said he was not close to his parents and believes they were duped into believing he was ill.
“For three years, they made no attempts to contact me,” he said. “Why didn’t they barge in and find out how sick I was?”
Phylip Chen and his wife are Taiwanese, and many of the donors in the case are active in central Ohio’s Taiwanese community.
Chen, a research biologist, said he has few Taiwanese friends and none of the donors ever tried to contact him about his health.
He said he received a text message from his wife yesterday but did not know where she was.
The couple could each face 10 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
By Calvin Palmer. Reprinted under fair use.
[Based on reports by the Associated Press and The Columbus Dispatch.]
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