Bradenton Man Charged With Impersonating Elon Musk to Defraud Texas Woman Out of $250,000

A man from Bradenton has been taken into custody on suspicion of posing as Elon Musk and defrauding a woman of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Bradenton Police Department has charged Jeffrey Moynihan, Jr., 56, with persuading a 74-year-old Texas woman to pay him substantial quantities of money.

The suspect communicated with the victim on Facebook for several months starting in 2023, tricking her into thinking she was funding Musk’s business endeavors. A staggering $55 million return on investment was offered to the elderly victim through the exchanges. At least $250,000 was moved to bank accounts that actually belonged to Moynihan and his company, Jeff’s Painting and Pressure Washing, LLC, according to police reports, ABC Action News said.

Moynihan was arrested yesterday at his home in Bradenton and is currently being charged with the alleged scheme. Local authorities stressed the ongoing investigation during the arrest, which was caught on bodycam footage. According to FOX 5 Atlanta, the woman’s husband indicated that the actual amount defrauded may have been as much as $600,000.

The fact that the Bradenton police department’s elder fraud unit reported that people over 60 had lost around $3 million in 2024 as a result of fraud cases only served to highlight how serious the matter is. “The real Elon Musk was otherwise engaged with the most recent launch of SpaceX and is not under investigation by BPD,” according to a statement police published while talking about the impostor, which WTSP reported.

According to reports, officials are still investigating this case in order to ascertain the entire scope of the suspected fraud.

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