- It takes some gall to scam your own mother.
There is no honor or glory in being a scammer. But if you do become a con artist, at least have enough moral fiber to not pull your family into it.
And you certainly don’t scam your own family like this New Hampshire man did.
Jason Taylor from Pelham has been sentenced to prison for orchestrating and carrying out an elaborate fraud scheme. His targets were none other than his own mother and aunt.
The 39-year-old pretended to be a special undercover agent working on a discreet operation for the Department of Justice. His work required him to make “daily deals” with other agents, and for that, he needed financial assistance from his family.
In reality, those deals were drug deals. Over several years, Taylor scammed more than $250,000, virtually bankrupting his own flesh and blood.
When they said they had no more money to pay, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court himself wrote to Taylor’s family. In a faked letter, Taylor insisted on their assistance in this vital criminal case.
Eventually, the elderly women’s banks alerted the police about the enormous amounts of money they were spending on questionable causes. Now, Taylor is off to jail and has to pay his family back every penny he stole.
Fake Government Investigation
Taylor’s scam began several years ago as the result of a drug arrest (which may not be real). Whether he was actually busted for drug deals or not, Taylor told his family that he had been drafted into a complex underground investigation involving multiple government agencies.
As part of this program, he would have to conduct “daily deals” with other agents and operatives to gather evidence for the undefined case. To keep things as authentic as possible, Taylor had to pay the agents for… Whatever they were doing.
However, Taylor was broke. And this is where his mother, Claire Taylor, and aunt, Joan Auger, came in.
Taylor created falsified law enforcement documents ordering his elderly mother and aunt to help him pay for this part in the investigation. It was all good – the government would reimburse them later for whatever they spent.
However, it was crucial that the case be kept hush-hush. Taylor also showed his family a gag order that prohibited them from discussing the investigation with anyone outside the federal government.
So began a years-long con where Taylor spent his family’s money on his “daily deals.” He would also often ask his mother or aunt to drive him to these meetings with “government agents.”
It’s not entirely clear what Taylor did with all the money he received. However, according to court documents, a lot of it went toward drugs.
Which may or may not be what started this whole scheme in the first place.
Chef Justice Steps In
“The government” wasn’t asking Mrs. Taylor and Auger for small sums of money, either. Over the years, they pumped more and more cash into the investigation.
According to court files, Taylor took roughly $68,000 from his mother over five years. His aunt paid much more, contributing $191,000 to the scheme. In total, Taylor stole about $260,000 from his family.
Most people don’t have that kind of money just sitting around, and the ever-increasing expense started to weigh heavily on the victims. For instance, Auger had to give up on a house she and her husband had planned to retire in.
Taylor even insisted that his aunt pawn her wedding ring to pay for the “government program.”
Eventually, both reached a breaking point. They had no more money to give and the financial stress had driven both Taylor’s mother and aunt to near mental breakdown.
But it was vital that the investigation continue. Thus, the “Chief Justice J.B. Roberts” of the U.S. Supreme Court wrote to Mrs. Taylor and Auger.
You might notice that the name is very close to the real Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. So close, in fact, that it was enough to fool Taylor’s mother and aunt.
In the letter, the “Chief Justice” agreed that they had contributed enormously to the “government” and he felt their pain. They just needed to make this one last payment to “at last stop this madness.”
Repayment
Finally, someone noticed that not everything was right. In October 2024, Taylor’s aunt’s credit union noticed that she and her husband were bankrupting themselves with inexplicable payments and withdrawals.
Concerned that they had fallen victim to a financial scam, the credit union reported the case to the police. An investigation ensued, which eventually got onto Taylor’s tracks.
Fast-forward to early November 2026, and Taylor has pleaded guilty to two counts of financial exploitation and theft by deception alike. He has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison, in addition to seven-and-a-half and 15-year suspended sentences.
The courts have also ordered Taylor to pay his mother and aunt back $260,048.69.