A Williamstown man is accused of using deception to bilk an Upper Township woman he met on a dating site out of about $1 million in cash.
George Ampole, 50, even told the woman that her estranged husband had taken a hit out on her, and they needed to pay the hitman $500,000 to $700,000 to call it off, Cape May County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Dara Paley said.
“This almost sounds like a made-for-TV movie, but in fact, this is real,” she said during a detention hearing Wednesday. “This is what happened and this is the huge scam and the fraud that this defendant perpetrated upon this victim.”
Ampole met the victim on Tinder in March, and the two began dating, according to the charges.
The wheelchair-bound woman was a vulnerable victim confined to her home with an aid watching her and going through a divorce, Paley said.
By April, the unnamed victim had given Ampole $60,000 for a paving machine that he told her he needed to complete a job at Lincoln Financial Field.
She was told the machine would be in her name and that she would be repaid $85,000 within 60 days, Paley said. But that didn’t happen.
Her grown son learned of the issue when he got a call from his mother’s bank about a complaint he had filed. The man knew nothing about such a complaint, and it was learned that Ampole had claimed to be the woman’s son.
But Ampole said that was the woman’s idea because she was upset that the bank wouldn’t give her the money.
Despite his attorney warning Ampole not to address the court, the defendant said the machine was real and that the woman could have had it at any time.
“She bought me a house also,” he said. “I never asked her to buy me a house.”
Defense attorney Thomas DeMarco said that the victim sent him a text saying she doesn’t want Ampole prosecuted.
“Quite frankly, Your Honor, our position is that the son of the victim and daughter-in-law are the people who masterminded this whole getting the police involved,” he said.
But Paley claimed the investigation has uncovered more potential victims.
Ampole’s prior criminal history includes other states, but they were disorderly persons offenses, Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury noted.
A third-degree drug charge is from 1999.
The public safety assessment — which helps determine whether a defendant should be held under bail reform — recommended his release with conditions.
But Paley argued that Ampole does not have a bank account and that the cash he got from the victim has not been found, making him a flight risk.
Ampole could “live off those ill-gotten gains and beyond reach of extradition for many years,” she said.
The judge disagreed, allowing Ampole’s release with increased conditions, including a social media ban.
Ampole also can only use the internet for medical or employment.
Paley said the state would be making an application for an ankle bracelet.
Ampole is due back in court Oct. 29.
