Brian Brainard Wedgeworth isn’t a doctor, but he played one online. Now victims of the “Casanova Scammer” are finally getting a little justice. Wedgeworth, 46, pleaded guilty on May 19 in a Florida federal court to stealing over $1 Million from more than 30 people he met on online dating sites.
Wedgeworth was arrested back in November 2021. And in a 25-count indictment, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida laid out the case against the con man who scoured sites like Match.com, Christian Mingle and Hinge for victims over a period of five years. The laundry list of charges include wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.
Between 2016 and 2021, the Casanova Scammer used over a dozen aliases, photos of himself dressed as a doctor and fake business cards to establish his phony identity. And he didn’t stop there. He added on some impressive but fake credentials, claiming to be associated with elite institutions, including Duke University, Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins University. And for the icing on the cake, he claimed to be a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Wedgeworth’s victims believed he was a wealthy, successful surgeon willing to pay off their debts. But in reality, the grifter was using that story to gain access to the women’s personal information, including bank accounts, passwords and social security numbers. Wedgeworth made the victims believe their debts were paid. But he used accounts that were either closed or had insufficient funds then made up excuses to get the women to send him money.
“These false stories included that he did not have the funds necessary to pay the expense for his (fictitious) medical practice because he had paid the women’s debts, and that his bank accounts were frozen due to a medical malpractice lawsuit,” the federal court documents added.
And if you’re not already angry, the indictment also revealed that Wedgeworth convinced some of his victims to buy him expensive gifts and add him as an authorized user of their accounts so he could rack up charges and cash advances at their expense. After one of the victims learned that Wedgeworth wasn’t who he claimed to be, he doubled down, telling them he was an undercover federal agent.
If he receives the maximum sentence for each charge, Wedgeworth is looking at up to more than 100 years in prison.