A woman in California pilfered money from her work place to pay for her imaginary online lover who promised to marry her. The Imaginary lover took nearly $ 500,000, who posed as a “wealthy foreign national” by the name of David Mark.


MOORPARK, Calif. (KTLA) — Ventura County Sheriff’s detectives have arrested a woman whom they say admitted to stealing approximately $700,000 from her place of employment through check forging, but most of the money went into the hands of an Internet scammer.
Detectives say 58-year-old Luellen Leyva of Newbury Park wrote herself checks on her employer’s account, then wired the money to a man she met on an internet dating site and planned to marry.
Leyva told detectives she wired over $500,000 from one of her bank accounts to her internet fiancé.
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Detectives investigating the case determined that Leyva deposited over $500,000 into two accounts from checks she forged during the past 20 months.
An analysis of her emails showed that she had been communicating with a man known to her only as ‘David Mark.’
Leyva was under the impression that she had developed an internet romance with a wealthy foreign national.
Leyva believed he came to the U.S. to be with her, but she was told via emails that he was detained by immigration.
Leyva then wired the roughly half-million dollars in what she thought was an attempt to free her lover.
Detectives were able to make Leyva understand that there was no ‘David Mark’ who was being held by immigration, and that she had in fact been sending money to a criminal organization in Africa.
Leyva is currently in custody at the Ventura County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.