A 70-year-old Las Vegas grant scammer, sentenced alongside a separate Medicare fraud
Lorraine Riddiough, 70, of Las Vegas — also known as Lorraine Ann Mader — pleaded guilty to running a telemarketing scheme from October 2009 to spring 2013 that falsely told small-business owners, many of them elderly, that they qualified for grants in exchange for upfront fees of $2,500 to $7,000, taking $444,224 through the scheme. She was sentenced in February 2019 to 34 months in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $13.9 million in restitution, covering the grant scheme and a separate Medicare and insurance fraud she also admitted to.
- Year
- 2019
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $444,224
- Victims
- 25
- Schemes
- Government grant scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-15
The facts, as recorded
- From October 2009 to spring 2013, Riddiough and co-conspirators called small-business owners and falsely told them they qualified for grants, which Riddiough promised to secure for a fee, usually between $2,500 and $7,000.
- No grant-related services were ever provided; after the initial fee, victims were typically told the grant had been approved but that additional fees were needed to access it.
- More than 25 victims lost a total of $444,224 to the grant scheme specifically.
- Riddiough separately pleaded guilty to a Medicare and insurance fraud scheme, including false claims about her own medical conditions and inability to work or drive.
- She was sentenced Thursday, February 21, 2019, to 34 months in federal prison plus five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay nearly $13.9 million in restitution covering both schemes combined.
- The case was heard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada before Judge Andrew P. Gordon (case nos. 2:15-cr-00018 and related 2:18-cr dockets).
Riddiough pleaded guilty to both the grant scheme and the separate Medicare fraud; this is a resolved case, not a pending allegation.
Why this case matters
This case shows the individual-victim version of the same pitch Villegas ran at a larger scale: a specific fee range ($2,500–$7,000), a specific escalation tactic (a second fee once the first “approves” the grant), and a specific age skew — the victims were described as mostly elderly small-business owners.
The escalation tactic, named plainly
The scheme did not stop at one fee. Once a victim paid the initial amount, they were told the grant had been approved but that further fees were required to actually access it — the same “one more fee before release” structure documented on the prize scam page, applied here to a grant instead of a prize.
Two frauds, one restitution figure
The $13.9 million restitution figure covers both the grant scheme and Riddiough’s separate Medicare and insurance fraud, not the grant scheme alone. The grant-specific loss documented is $444,224 — the figure used on this page — and the two schemes should not be conflated as if the larger number described grant fraud specifically.
The caveat
Riddiough pleaded guilty and was sentenced; the underlying facts of her own admitted conduct are settled. The $13.9 million restitution order reflects two combined schemes and, as with any restitution order, is not the same figure as what victims have actually recovered.
Sources
- Local woman to pay nearly $14 million for health care fraud, phone scams targeting elderly. News 3 Las Vegas (KSNV). Accessed 2026-09-15. Supports: The defendant's name and alias, age, location, the grant scheme's dates, method and dollar figures, the victim count, the sentence, and the combined restitution total.
- U.S. v. RIDDIOUGH — Preliminary Order of Forfeiture. U.S. District Court, District of Nevada (via Leagle). Accessed 2026-09-15. Supports: The defendant's legal name and alias, the case numbers, and the presiding judge, corroborating the news account.