Man charged for posing as Red Sox scout

The Associated Press
Published: December 2, 2008

JAMESTOWN, R.I.—More people have come forward to report being scammed by a man who allegedly took hundreds of thousands of dollars by posing as a Boston Red Sox scout, a real estate investor
and a cancer victim, the state police said Tuesday.

Charles Pruenca was arrested at his Jamestown home Tuesday on three felony counts of obtaining money under false pretenses and delivery of a fraudulent check over $1,000. It was his second arrest since early November on charges related to alleged scams.

Pruenca, 38, was arraigned Tuesday and ordered held as a probation and bail violator, Lt. David Neill said. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.

State Police said Pruenca took roughly $100,000 from a person by claiming he was a Red Sox scout who could get season and playoff tickets.

He also allegedly got a $33,000 loan last month from the same person by claiming that he was raising money to help a friend in Chicago undergo experimental liver surgery.

Pruenca was initially arrested on Nov. 5 after someone complained about being giving him more than $6,300 for Red Sox tickets that never came. Police say Pruenca told the person that he would repay the money but then made up a lie about needing cancer treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

The publicity from that arrest encouraged more alleged victims to come forward, and Neill said police were investigating complaints from about a dozen other people.