His New Wife Was 50 Years Younger. Now, an Arrest

Lin Halfon accused of trying to swindle elderly husband in Florida
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 26, 2019 11:35 AM CST

Looks like the honeymoon is over for a Florida businessman and his new wife—because, per the AP, it looks like the young bride tried to swindle her elderly spouse. The Tampa Bay Times has the full story on the arrest of 26-year-old Lin Helena Halfon, who, per court records, showed up at a Tampa Amscot in early November and tried to cash a $1 million cashier's check that had her name on it, as well as the name of her 77-year-old husband, Richard Rappaport, whom she'd just married in August. Amscot staff wouldn't cash the check without Rappaport present, nor three other checks for $333,333 each that Halfon came back with later that day, per a warrant affidavit. At that point, an Amscot worker got suspicious and called authorities.

When investigators contacted Rappaport, he appeared to think the whole thing was a mistake and that Halfon was going to give the checks to him; he wanted authorities to back off, as he didn't want his wife deported back to her native Israel, per the affidavit. However, in late November, an unnamed man (not Rappaport) cashed two of the $333,333 checks. By the time Rappaport was once more interviewed by investigators on Dec. 10, he conceded that he thought he was being taken for a ride. Rappaport's daughter, who hadn't even known her father had married, also said she "believed that Halfon was 'conning' Rappaport due to his age," the affidavit notes. Halfon was arrested at Tampa International Airport on Dec. 16 as she arrived home on a flight from New York; she's been charged with money laundering, fraud, and exploitation of an elderly person. Her bail has been set at $1 million. (More exploitation stories.)

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