KINGSHILL — A St. Croix woman extradited from Florida to face 12 charges related to elder fraud was formally apprised of the charges against her in Superior Court on Monday, authorities said.
Lissette Algarin-Felix, 52, is charged with obtaining money by false pretenses, embezzlement, identity theft, forgery and counterfeiting, filing or recording forged instruments, conspiracy, grand larceny, acting in assumed character, intentional access, alteration, damage or destruction and financial exploitation of an elder or dependent adult, Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George said.
Algarin-Felix, along with co-defendant, Ricardo Algarin, her brother, are accused of financial fraud and exploitation of an elderly man on St. Croix between 2018 and 2019 based on an exhaustive VIDOJ investigation. If convicted, she faces up to fifteen years in prison.
Algarin-Felix was transported back to the territory from Florida last week by VIDOJ
agents after she was apprehended by Florida authorities last month on a Virgin Islands
Superior Court arrest warrant. Algarin-Felix appeared in V.I. Superior Court before
Magistrate Judge Yolan Brow Ross. The Court found probable cause to bind her
over on 12 elder fraud charges, court records indicate.
At arraignment, Algarin-Felix entered a plea of not guilty to all charges and bail was set at $35,000 with the posting of ten percent with the balance posted as unsecured.