Coconspirator in Agent’s ‘Secret Probation’ Fraud Scheme Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison

The coconspirator in retired FBI agent William Stone's scheme to con a local mother out of more than $700,000 by convincing her she was on "secret federal probation" was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Joseph Eventino DeLeon, 63, was indicted in December 2021. In February 2024, after 12 days of trial, a jury convicted him and Mr. Stone of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. (Mr. Stone was also convicted of five counts of wire fraud, one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity, and one count of false impersonation of a federal officer.) Mr. DeLeon was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Ada Brown, who ordered him to pay $765,320.37 in restitution to his victim.

According to evidence presented at trial, Mr. Stone convinced his victim, C.T., that she was under "secret probation" for federal drug crimes in "Judge Anderson's court in Austin, Texas."

He and Mr. DeLeon told the victim that the fictious federal judge had appointed the two of them to administer the conditions of her six year "secret probation." They required her to text them written reports of her daily activities, and to compensate them for their supervisory services, as well as any expenses they incurred. Copies of the five and six figure checks she wrote them were admitted into evidence at trial. Over the course of eleven months, C.T. gave Mr. Stone more than $700,000 and Mr. DeLeon more than $50,000.

Mr. Stone and Mr. DeLeon insisted that C.T. was prohibited from disclosing her probation status to anyone, and would risk imprisonment and loss of her children if she did not comply with the terms of her probation.

When C.T. began to question the situation, Mr. Stone assured her everything he'd done was "legit."

In order to further convince her the probation was real, the defendants monitored her cell phone communications, conducted physical surveillance of her, stated they had discussed C.T.'s probation with a psychiatrist, enlisted another person to impersonate the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration "Intelligence Center" in a message inquiring about C.T., and even placed spoof calls between Mr. Stone, C.T., and the fictitious Judge Anderson.

They urged her to distance herself from her family, claiming her family members wanted to take her inheritance away from her, and persuaded her to transfer her inherited assets out of a trust and into an account under her own name. At one point, they claimed Judge Anderson would discharge C.T.'s probation if C.T. agreed to marry Mr. Stone. Mr. DeLeon even carried a weapon in C.T.'s home while purportedly providing "protective services" for her.

Mr. Stone was previously sentenced to 87 months in federal prison and taken into custody when sentenced, as was Mr. DeLeon.

The Texas Rangers and the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation. Mr. Stone retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in October 2015. The Bureau provided valuable assistance during the trial. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jenna Rudoff, Donna Strittmatter Max, and Marcus Busch prosecuted the case with the support of Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Miller and Appellate Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Pryor. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dimitri Rocha is handling the forfeiture.