Canadian man arrested at Louisville airport, accused of scamming seniors across the US

By Alex Suckow, Jamie Mayes

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    Indiana (WLKY) — Police in Indiana have arrested a Canadian man they say came to the United States and scammed seniors across the country out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Charlestown detectives said they began investigating Jia Hua Liu, 36, of Quebec, in May.

A resident reported being tricked into withdrawing $27,000 from his retirement account and handing it over to a man posing as a Department of the Treasury employee.

“These people, when they call to scam these elderly citizens, they try to perpetuate themselves as law enforcement officers because it makes the elderly people, bring their guard down a little bit,” said Chief Det. Jason Broady, Charlestown Police Department.

Liu was later connected to fraud cases in several other states, including Ohio, New Mexico and Tennessee.

Charlestown police said they also identified people who were nearly scammed in Indiana and Kentucky, but said family members intervened just in time.

Detectives in Charlestown caught up with Liu at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport last week and arrested him as he was about to catch a flight.

He’s now facing multiple felony charges, including fraud and theft.

“We’ve identified a couple of co-conspirators. We’re still investigating those aspects to see what, if any, charges we can bring against those because they’re not here. They’re not in Clark County, Indiana. They’re in Indiana. It looks like they’re in other countries,” Broady said.

Search warrants for Liu’s vehicle and luggage revealed a large amount of cash.

Police believe that, in all, he was able to get his hands on $400,000 through his alleged scams.

“These folks prey on these elderly individuals and oftentimes some of them have diminished mental capacities or other things like that, and they just take advantage of them, which is just unfortunate,” Broady said.

Police are still working to identify all the victims. If you or someone you know has been targeted by a similar scam, please contact the Charlestown Police Department.

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