HARRISBURG — Five Butler County residents are among the victims of an alleged financial fraud that targeted hundreds of senior citizens across the state.

In a statement released Tuesday, the state Attorney General’s Office announced criminal charges have been filed against four Philadelphia men accused of taking thousands of dollars from seniors who believed they were purchasing “home care” or “home security” services that supposedly would assist them with their future care.

“This was a disturbing and despicable scheme designed to extract as much money as possible from unwitting seniors who believed they were protecting themselves against costly future home-care expenses,” Attorney General Linda Kelly said in a written statement issued Tuesday. “These con artists left a string of more than 200 victims, stretching from Philadelphia to Erie, and stole more than $700,000 through the sale of contracts for bogus home care services or stolen insurance premiums.”

Investigators have identified at least 218 alleged victims lin 41 counties. Many were widowed, living alone without any nearby family members. The average age of the alleged victims is estimated at 83.

The investigation, known as “Operation False Comfort,” involved the presentation of evidence and testimony to a statewide investigating grand jury, which recommended the criminal charges.

Agents from the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section and Elder Abuse Unit have filed charges in Montgomery County against: Bruce Howard Cherry, 52, of Philadelphia; Ross M. Rabelow, 52, of Southampton, Bucks County; Thomas J. Muldoon, 57, of Broomall, Delaware County; and Robert P. Lerner, 56, of Philadelphia.

According to the statement, the grand jury determined the scheme revolved around the sale of service contracts for businesses that supposedly provided specialty services for seniors:

• American Comfort Home Care Services, which is owned by Rabelow with Cherry serving as the primary salesman. It claimed to provide non-medical home care services for the elderly

• Global Services for the Home which was supposedly operated by Muldoon. It claimed to provide specialty services for seniors, including home safety equipment and/or serving as a “health advocate” to assist older residents in dealing with insurance companies.

• Cherry also identified himself as the proprietor of “Cherry Senior Solutions,” a business that supposedly provided expert counseling regarding long-term health care and other insurance needs.

“In reality, these businesses were little more than names on pieces of paper, serving only as a mechanism to repeatedly approach seniors with sales presentations,” Kelly said. “Victims were often encouraged to purchase multiple overlapping contracts or to pay for duplicate ‘services’ included in this scheme, and in some cases were advised to cancel legitimate insurance policies for long-term health care in favor of the bogus programs being pushed by the defendants.”

According to Kelly’s written statement, the grand jury determined victims were typically encouraged to purchase 1,000 hours of services, to be used within a one-year period of time, for a cost of $1,590.

“One of the key points that was stressed during these sales calls was that seniors could purchase these services for an extremely low hourly price, approximately $1.59 per hour, which was far below what other in-home services would cost,” Kelly said. “Victims were often approached on a repeated basis and persuaded to buy a confusing array of multiple or overlapping contracts, often with no clear way to determine how much service they were supposed to receive, and regardless of their need or their ability to use all of these so-called services.”

Kelly said seniors who did purchase contracts for American Comfort were further victimized if they attempted to use any of the services they had purchased.

“Despite contracts that clearly stated the services would be provided ‘upon demand’ and ‘without condition’, victims’ requests for assistance were often ignored, delayed, discouraged or minimized in a concerted effort to avoid providing any service,” Kelly said. “Only when faced with the most persistent seniors were any services provided, and the grand jury found no evidence that American Comfort ever provided any customer with all of the hours of service they had paid for.”

The statement says the grand jury also determined that no plans were put in place by American Comfort and no resources were set aside to pay for the ever-increasing hours of service the company was supposed to provide to seniors.

“According to the grand jury, approximately 70% of all the checks written on the American Comfort account were payments made to Rabelow, Cherry and other salesmen,” Kelly said. “Records indicate that only about 3 percent of the funds the company received from its victims were used to provide any services.”

“Not satisfied with selling worthless American Comfort contracts to unsuspecting seniors, the defendants also pushed victims to purchase additional services from Muldoon’s company, Global Service for the Home,” Kelly said. “Under the guise that Muldoon was a ‘home safety specialist,’ victims were often charged thousands of dollars for cursory inspections or installation of inexpensive off-the-shelf items like smoke detectors, which the victims could have purchased themselves at a fraction of the cost.”

Individuals who believe they were victimized by this scheme can contact the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section, Norristown Office, at 610-631-5164.