DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County senior citizen thought she was investing in a business but now believes it never actually existed.
Colombian immigrant Luz Roman, 70, says she gave Erik Alberto Christopher Martinez nearly $93,000 to invest in a medical transportation company.
She told Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray that Martinez kept coming to her to write checks for things like a Medicare license or to build a call center.
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But Roman now believes there was no business and that her money is gone.
“How did I allow this to happen to me? How did I allow this man to manipulate me in the way he did?” Roman questioned.
She first realized something was wrong when she went to what was supposed to be the company headquarters inside a Dunwoody office building. She discovered from the building’s management company that there was no office.
“That man was so convincing and came up with excuses, manipulating me and manipulating the situations over and over and over again,” she said.
Martinez goes by different versions of that name with different people. He is currently booked in the Gwinnett County Jail on an all cash $100,000 bond on theft by deception charges, according to the arrest warrant.
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“He took her credit cards and manipulated the banking accounts and just really made her feel like there’s some viable business that just did not exist at all,” private investigator Robin Martinelli said.
After filing complaints with Norcross police and the Federal Trade Commission, Roman hired Martinelli.
Martinelli tracked Martinez to Miami, Florida last week where he was advertising a legal services fair that apparently never existed.
“When we got there, the mall where he was supposed to do this didn’t even have flooring,” Martinelli said.
Roman says she feels relief knowing Martinez is now in jail.
“I am able to go to sleep now in peace,” she said.
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