A married Utah County entrepreneur is facing charges for allegedly dating to defraud a breast-cancer survivor out of nearly $200,000 and is further accused of using the same “disturbing pattern of activity'' in victimizing his second victim, a widow.
The suspect, Nathanael Holzapfel, 42, of Orem, has been charged on Wednesday in 4th District Court with three second-degree felonies, including two counts of theft by deception and one count of communications fraud after the widowed victim came forward.
The new charges are on top of three counts of communications fraud he has been facing since Aug. 30. In this case, he allegedly dated the divorcee in February 2020 and left her $200,000 in the red, according to the Utah County Attorney’s Office.
Holzapfel reportedly defrauded the first woman to invest in his business Save My House, LLC, and sell her home, which was reportedly modified to accommodate her specially-abled adult son's needs, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The suspect also tricked her into signing a quitclaim deed to transfer ownership of her home to his company with a promise that it could protect her approximately $200,000 in equity. She was told it will also prevent her from paying high capital gains taxes upon selling the property.
Investigators said that Holzapfel, who gained notoriety on the ABC TV show “Shark Tank" in 2013, met his second victim on Tinder in August and began grooming her by September.
The suspect allegedly tricked the widow into investing her money, so she could live like a gold girl, according to new charging documents.
He then urged the victim to take $50,000 from her late husband’s life insurance policy and invest it into his company Bristol and Beard, the Daily Beast noted.
With a promise of a 10 percent return for the next four to five years, the woman agreed to the plan despite being visibly hesitant about it. She was further buttered up and told she would get $1 million once he sold the company.
On Sept. 17, Holzapfel accompanied the woman to the bank, asking her to withdraw the alleged $50,000 investment money. Later that day, when the victim told the defendant she wanted the money back, Holzapfel “kept changing the topic" and never returned her money.
“The victim asked for the money from the sales but never received the money from the defendant,” court documents also revealed.
Apart from the $50,000, the man also reportedly took an AR-15, ammunition, and a vehicle from the woman. He would sell the items without her permission.
Meanwhile, Utah County Attorney David Leavitt confirmed other women have since come forward and claimed they were victims of Holzapfel. Leavitt flagged more charges could be filed against the defendant in the coming weeks.
“We express our gratitude for the media’s help in heightening the awareness and providing information for victims to contact our office. It appears that multiple victims are involved in a disturbing pattern of activity from an individual,” Leavitt said in a statement as per DeseretNews.
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