Santa Barbara – Joseph Anthony Florendo Mele, a 30-year old resident of Ventura, is no fool. He’s clearly an educated, sophisticated, and smooth-talking guy, as evidenced by his attaining a California State Insurance Broker License, his familiarity with assorted investment vehicles, and by his ability to fleece a 93-year old woman to the tune of nearly a million dollars.
According Santa Barbara Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, Mele managed to purloin no less than $800,000 “over the course of several months in 2013 and 2014,” as he assured his elderly victim that he was “making investments in her behalf.” But as these things go, such significant cash flows do not go unnoticed by the banks where such withdrawals are made, and eight months ago employees of Montecito Bank & Trust notified the Santa Barbara Adult Protective Services of “suspicious activity” in the victim’s bank account.
The ensuing investigation, conducted by officers of the SBPD Property Crimes Division and the California Department of Insurance, soon learned that Mele had been writing personal checks to himself on his elderly victim’s account which were ostensibly going to be funding “investments on her behalf,” but which Mele simply deposited into his own account. Detectives determined that no investments were made with those funds, and that Mele used the money “for his own personal expenses, entertainment, gambling, and travel.” With that information in hand, SBPD’s Det. Kristin Shamordola obtained an $800,000 warrant for Mele’s arrest in February 2015.
It took law enforcement in both Ventura and Santa Barbara counties four months to track Mele down, eventually catching up to him at the Santa Barbara Superior Courthouse as he turned himself in. He was arrested on the spot and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on charges of grand theft and elder abuse.
Photo: courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
