Colin A.J. Chisholm and his wife, Andrea, are in jail in Minnesota, but for years they lived the life of the rich and famous, buying an 83-foot Trumpy motoryacht and living in luxury homes in Minnesota and Florida.
Fraud investigators eventually caught up with the Chisholms and accused the couple of collecting $167,420 in public assistance from Minnesota and receiving welfare benefits in Florida as well.
The Chisholms, who said they were Scottish nobility — Lord and Lady Chisholm — were extradited March 31 from the Bahamas, where they had been hiding for more than a month after investigators in Minnesota launched an intensive manhunt for them, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s office.
“Lord and Lady Chisholm III are fraudsters of the first degree,” said Hennepin County state’s attorney Mike Freeman, who spoke at a press conference in Minnesota 10 days before their arrest.
His office has charged them with wrongfully obtaining more than $35,000 in public assistance, a felony. A story in the June issue of Soundings about the Chisholms also reported that Freeman wants to see the couple do “hard time.”
The Chisholms are in the Hennepin County Jail on $300,000 bond apiece, WCCO-TV in Minneapolis said in a report that noted a judge kept their bond at that figure after an April 29 hearing. Their next scheduled court appearance is June 9. Hennepin County prosecutors are continuing their investigation.
