A fraudster brought home the bacon after a massive pig butchering scam.
Lori Flowers, 58, was the latest victim in a massive, $600,000 scam after thinking she was helping out a friend.
The pig-butchering scam — an investment scheme where victims get “fattened” with false attention before getting exploited financially — happened after Flowers thought she was bailing out a close friend.
A man from Brussels got her to lend him $400,000 by wiping out her 401(k) — but ended up having Flowers fork over $600,000 altogether.
But losing the chunk of change wasn’t the only bill she got stuck with. Just as Flowers was moving on from the 2022 swindle that left her desperate, a massive tax bill came.
USA Today reported that Flowers owed $225,000 in taxes and penalties on money she had withdrawn from her retirement account. Despite the cash going to the con artist, the IRS still treated it as income — which meant she was on the hook.
Flowers had no choice but to declare bankruptcy.
“This is my credit,” Flowers said. “This is my livelihood.”
It all started back in 2017 when a provision was made to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — a sweeping federal tax law that switched how individuals and businesses are taxed. A rule was modified that no longer protected victims of theft.
Recently, Congress took action to ensure legal protections for scam victims after a bill — the Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act — won House approval on Sept. 15.
If passed, the legislation would lift the burden of paying taxes on stolen funds. It is currently awaiting action in the Senate.
The pig-butchering scam took the 58-year-old by complete surprise after Flowers became lured by someone on LinkedIn. The man contacted her and claimed to be from Brussels and was moving to her region of North Carolina.
The two went back and forth on the professional website until switching over to email. Within a month, they were speaking by phone where Flowers said his accent sounded vaguely Belgian.
“I thought we were really getting to know each other,” Flowers said. “What I think I know now is, he was using AI.”
Four months into the friendship — where nothing was asked of her — the Brussels man said he had won a large business contract in the US. Flowers looked it up, and everything seemed to be legitimate — until it wasn’t.
The scammer told Flowers investors were dropping out and that he needed to raise capital or would lose it all.
After some back and forth, she decided to empty her retirement account, and wired $400,000 from her bank. The manager tried helping and asked Flowers if she knew this person.
“I was offended by the question,” Flowers said. “Of course, I know this person.”
A month later, the Brussels fraudster told Flowers he needed $200,000 more, so she took out two personal loans to cover the rest. Shortly after, Flowers realized she had been scammed but still owed $4,000 first payments on those loans.
She eventually was forced to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy where her new payments — $5,690 — covered mostly the tax debt.
If the Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act gets passed, Flowers could be off the hook. However, she would never recover the $600,000 she gave up to the scammer.
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