Miramar man pleads guilty to defrauding doctor out of nearly $500,000, feds say
A Miramar man pleaded guilty on Monday, Feb. 23, to wire fraud for scamming a Virginia doctor out of almost $500,000, authorities said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Virginia said via news release on Feb. 24 that Tommie Lee Nelson faces a maxiumum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Officials said this was a two-year operation, where Nelson, 65, posed as a lucrative business owner. He operated under the state-registered company “Hugh Johnson Enterprises, Inc.” according to the indictment obtained by WPLG-Local 10, and defrauded the victim out of $455,000.
The victim was a Lynchburg, Virginia, doctor seeking to purchase a commercial building in Danville, Virginia, officials said.
“Nelson represented himself to the victim as a ‘hard money’ lender who could assist in purchasing the building,” the news release said.
He stopped responding to the victim’s calls as the purchase agreement fell through.
The indictment shows he never tried to buy the building.
Beginning in July 2020, Nelson convinced the victim to wire him several payments totaling nearly $500,000 over several months, the attorney’s office said. Nelson then spent the money at casinos and “for his personal benefit,” the release said.
He was arrested in 2025 in Florida but is being prosecuted in federal court in Lynchburg, Virginia, according to the indictment.
