ROANOKE, Va. – A Florida man was arraigned in a U.S. District Court in Roanoke on Monday and ordered detained on six counts of wire fraud, according to the Department of Justice.
Officials say 65-year-old Tommie Lee Nelson was arraigned due to a two-year scheme that defrauded a Lynchburg doctor out of nearly half a million dollars. This arraignment also follows his appearance in Fort Lauderdale after FBI agents arrested him in July at his home near Miami.
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According to the indictment, beginning around April 2020, the victim, a Lynchburg doctor, sought to purchase a commercial building in Danville. Nelson represented himself to the victim as a hard money lender who could assist in purchasing the building.
Nelson convinced the victim to wire him several payments from July 2020 into 2021, ultimately totaling almost $500,000. Despite Nelson’s representations, these payments did not go toward the building purchase; instead, the indictment alleges Nelson spent the victims’ money at casinos and for his personal benefit.
By 2021, the purchase agreement had fallen through, and Nelson stopped responding to the victim’s calls. In 2024, the victim won a civil judgment against Nelson’s Corporation. In entering the judgment, the presiding United States district judge referred the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for criminal investigation. If convicted, Nelson faces a maximum punishment of 120 years in federal prison.
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