CRIME & COURTS

Woman to spend 18 months in prison for fake pregnancy scheme

Grant Rodgers
grodgers@dmreg.com

A married Maquoketa woman who faked a pregnancy to swindle $95,850 from a man will spend 18 months in prison.

Johna Loreen Vandermore, 34, was sentenced to prison by U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Rose on Friday, and was also ordered to pay back the money she took from the victim. Vandermore pleaded guilty to mail fraud in December.

In 2007, Vandermore had a short relationship with a man who is only identified by initials in court documents. After the relationship ended, Vandermore told the man she was pregnant with his child. He agreed to help support the non-existent child with $1,000 monthly payments sent to a post office box in Bettendorf.

The man also agreed to pay for any expenses and would send money around holidays and the fake child's made-up birthday. Vandermore also falsified a medical bill in an effort to get more money. In total, the man made more than 90 payments to Vandermore between 2007 and 2013.

To back up her claims, Vandermore gave the man a fake birth certificate from a hospital that doesn't exist, according to court documents. Vandermore sent the man pictures of her cousin's daughter and claimed it was their child.

Eventually, Vandermore's husband found out about the $1,000 monthly checks his wife was getting. She told him that it was payment for sales she made for Herbalife, a company that sells nutrition products.

The mail fraud charge that Vandermore pleaded guilty to carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. In a sentencing brief, Vandermore's defense attorney wrote that the Maquoketa woman initially really did believe she was pregnant and sought the first payments to help with birth expenses.

The scheme simply continued on its "own inertia" after Vandermore realized she wasn't pregnant, wrote defense attorney Donovan Robertson. The scheme could have been caught quicker if the man had tried to be more involved in his fake child's life, possibly by requesting an in-person visit, Robertson wrote.

"These things are not intended to foist responsibility of the victim, but, to show the ease with which a house of cards could have been toppled," Robertson wrote.

Robertson wrote the argument in a sentencing recommendation to counter prosecutors' claims that Vandermore used "sophisticated means" to carry out the plan. The arguments were important, as federal sentencing guidelines allow enhancements based on the complexity of an alleged fraud.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bettendorf Police Department investigated the case. Vandermore also went by the names Johna Volger and Johna Ratliff, according to a press release.