A Texas man who pretended to be a former member of an Army Delta Force unit and offered to protect families from Mexican drug cartels was sentenced to 40 years in prison, Department of Justice officials announced.
Saint Jovite Youngblood, also known as Kota Youngblood, 52, defrauded 32 people out of $12 million by offering his protection to families that he convinced were under threat by drug cartels and claiming that “investors” would repay their money with significant returns. Instead, he used a majority of the money to gamble in Las Vegas casinos, federal officials said in a release.
According to a federal complaint, victim and witness interviews showed that Youngblood used “the threat of ‘the Cartel’ or other dangers” to pressure victims to pay money. To carry out the fraud and extortion scheme, which dated back to at least 2010, Youngblood used intermediaries, set up in-person meetings and avoided creating any paper trails of phone calls or emails, a federal agent testified in court in 2023.
During a May 2023 recorded conversation with an undercover FBI agent, Youngblood said he currently “freelanced” for the Department of Defense and that he served in the military for 22 years with Delta Force and the Army’s 82nd Airborne. U.S. military records indicated that Youngblood never served, according to court documents. Delta Force is an Army special operations unit, officially called 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, that specializes in some of the most highly classified missions involving counterterrorism, direct action, hostage rescue, and reconnaissance.
Youngblood was arrested in July 2023 and sentenced by a federal court in Austin, Texas Wednesday. He was also ordered to pay full restitution of $12,766,384.
According to an Aug.10, 2023 court transcript of a federal agent’s testimony, one of the victims knew Youngblood for around six years because their sons played hockey together. The investigator testified that Youngblood “targeted a number of individuals from his son’s hockey team.”
The one victim’s story highlighted in the DOJ release and described in court transcripts began when he got a call from his son one day. The son told him that Youngblood needed to speak with him about a “situation going on with your family.”
According to the federal complaint, Youngblood told the victim that he and his family “were targets” of a drug cartel and “were in grave danger,” because his ex-wife was using and dealing drugs and had been involved with the cartel herself. Youngblood told the victim that his ex-wife was attempting to have him killed in order to cash in on a $6.5 million life insurance policy in his name. Youngblood claimed to have audio of the ex-wife and cartel members hiring a hitman, which he said was obtained from a friend at the National Security Agency. In return for their protection, Youngblood requested money.
Youngblood instructed the victim to write a $70,000 check to a separate person, a dealer of an antique clock business, “who could deposit large checks for cash.” Youngblood promised the victim a 30% return on his investment. The victim later gave Youngblood two more payments of $86,000 and $83,000.
According to federal investigators, Youngblood’s investment schemes involved giving the victims “collateral” which included sports memorabilia, like baseball bats he claimed belonged to famous players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, as well as Star Wars memorabilia and famous artwork.
The federal complaint also described Youngblood exploiting the victims’ fear to get them to do certain things that he claimed were to protect them but instead were used in schemes involving other victims.
For example, the first victim received threatening phone calls from blocked numbers. Meanwhile, Youngblood told another woman to make those phone calls, gave her a “script for her to say” and directed her to use a fake accent on the calls. She told investigators Youngblood told her and her husband “that the cartel would kill their family if they did not.”
Youngblood used the same tactic with derogatory online posts on Instagram, Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, DealerRater, and the first victim’s company website. The posts included accusations of the victim’s ex-wife’s alleged involvement in “sex swinging groups and prolific use of drugs” which Youngblood said was the cartel’s way of threatening them. Youngblood used it as leverage to get the victim to pay and said he would get “the online harassment to stop.”
A third victim told federal investigators that he was told by Youngblood that “creating these posts would protect [their] family.” This third victim and their family was so scared by the alleged cartel threats that they fled their Texas home in the middle of the night, moved to a hotel in Florida and changed their names, the federal investigator testified in court.
“This fraudster developed close relationships with dozens of individuals, building an immense amount of trust seemingly just to destroy their lives financially through elaborate, deceitful misrepresentations,” U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas Jaime Esparza said in the release. “It is my hope that the individuals and families impacted by his schemes are able to repair any loss they have suffered.”
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