An Atlantic City, New Jersey, man today admitted escaping from federal custody and engaging in a scheme to defraud women over telephone dating services.
Patrick Giblin, 57, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden federal court to an information charging him with one count of escape from the custody of the Attorney General and one count of wire fraud.
According to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Giblin escaped on July 23, 2020, from the custody of the Attorney General while traveling from a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, to a residential living facility in Newark, where he had been directed to serve the remainder of a federal prison sentence.
At the time, Giblin was serving a sentence imposed in 2017 for traveling interstate and using an interstate facility to promote unlawful activity in connection with a scheme to defraud multiple women.
Giblin’s 2017 sentence followed an earlier sentence of 115 months in prison for a 2007 wire fraud conviction for a similar fraud scheme.
Members of the U.S. Marshals Service located and arrested Giblin in Atlantic City on March 10, 2021.
It was the second time that Giblin had escaped federal custody just short of completing a sentence.
From April 2019 through March 2021 – including during the time period when he was a fugitive – Giblin posted advertisements and messages on telephone dating services.
Giblin cultivated a rapport with the women he spoke to on these services, falsely claimed that he would be relocating to the woman’s geographic area, and falsely represented that he wished to pursue a committed, romantic relationship with each woman.
Giblin received money from the women he spoke to on the dating services via interstate wire services such as Western Union and MoneyGram.
The charge of escape carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greatest.
The charge of wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greatest. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 16, 2022.
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