In December, Oklahoma officials say, Jason Morris persuaded his online, elderly girlfriend to send him $120,000 to pay for an oil vessel carrying 700,000 barrels in Alaska he said he owned to return to shore. Once the rig returned, she and Morris would move in together, he is alleged to have said.
The bank held the funds, according to court documents. Morris instructed the woman to contact her bank and lie to it, saying the funds were for purchasing property and not for the alleged oil tanker, the documents say.
But the bank was right to raise suspicion — officials say there was never an Alaskan oil rig. In fact, they say, there was never a Jason Morris.
'Scams that target seniors'
Christine Joan Echohawk, 53, of Oklahoma, is accused of being the face behind the screen, scamming the older woman out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and laundering the money.
Four women were scammed out of $1.5 million through Echohawk's online romance scams from Sept. 30 to Dec. 26, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office said in a news release.
The women were ages 64 and 79, and all lived outside Oklahoma.
“These types of scams that target seniors are especially egregious,” Drummond said in the release.
Drummond filed charges against Echohawk on Monday alleging “unlawful use of criminal proceeds and using a computer to violate state statutes,” the release said. Echohawk was sent cash, checks, wired funds and even tens of thousands of dollars in Apple gift cards, it said.
Authorities say Echohawk laundered the funds through various accounts, converting the money into cryptocurrency and sending the crypto payments to an unidentified person.
Jason Morris, Edward Lotts and Glenn Goadard
The alleged scams included fake names — such as Edward Lotts and Glenn Goadard — and elaborate backstories explaining the need for loads of cash, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Lotts persuaded a woman to send more than $600,000 to pay off a debt that would allow $2 million to be released to "him." When the debt was paid off, Lotts would move in with her, the affidavit says.
The victim sold her paid-off home to send all the money, it says.
Goadard contacted another woman claiming to have known her since college, authorities said. The woman was persuaded to pay $250,000 for expenses on a financial portfolio Goadard would send her from Syria, they said.
But Echohawk received all the funds, depositing them into a MidFirst Bank account in which she was the sole signatory, the affidavit alleges.
The Stillwater MidFirst Bank branch tipped off Drummond's office in January, suspecting Echohawk of senior-fraud activity after a $120,000 payment from one of the victims was intercepted and held, according to the release. The Consumer Protection Unit subsequently investigated.
Confidence/romance crimes and Maurice Deniro
Defined as a confidence/romance scheme by the FBI, such crimes occur when people believe they are in relationships — whether with family members, friends or romantic partners — and manipulated into sending money, financial or personal information or items of value to a perpetrator. The FBI Internet Crime Report found more than $600 million was lost in 2023 to confidence/romance crimes.
Local law enforcement confronted Echohawk about the suspected criminal activity in January, but she is alleged to have continued to launder the money after a short hiatus.
Echohawk was voluntarily interviewed at the Pawnee Police Department on March 26. She opened the interview by asking whether it would "all go away" if she paid back the people who sent her money, according to the affidavit.
But she then claimed it was she who was in an online relationship, that she had been receiving cash, checks, wire transfers and other items since 2023 for a person under the alias of Maurice Dinero, the affidavit says. Echohawk claimed there were "red flags" about her situation and had concerns that she would be arrested, it says.
When Echohawk consented to have her purse searched, the affidavit says, there were multiple bank cards associated with accounts she is alleged to have laundered money through, a MidFirst Bank deposit slip for $110,000 and several Apple gift cards with the barcodes revealed. There was also $500 in cash, which Echohawk said was from people sending money to the alias but that she had not yet deposited, the affidavit says.
Echohawk is charged with four counts of unlawful use of criminal proceeds and one count of violating the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act, which could carry up to 62 years in prison and $260,000 in fines, the release said.
She has been held in the Pawnee County Jail since Monday, according to Pawnee County Sheriff's Office records. An attorney was not listed, and it is unclear whether she has legal representation.
“I applaud the work of my Consumer Protection Unit to fight for these victims and to hold accountable their alleged perpetrator," Drummond said in the release.
