- Todd Joseph Sweet, 52, is wanted in Utah for allegedly stealing $80,000 in a romance scam.
- Sweet, using aliases, deceives women with false military and security claims, according to police.
- St. George police are investigating another potential victim of Sweet's romance scams.
ST. GEORGE — A man who has an outstanding arrest warrant in southern Utah accusing him of scamming a woman out of more than $80,000 is being investigated for allegedly stealing from another woman while on the run.
Police say he has a history of preying on vulnerable women across the country.
"He's a predator," said St. George police detective Wyatt Lubbers. But Lubbers also notes that Todd Joseph Sweet is very charismatic and very good at manipulating people.
Sweet, 52, develops relationships with women and often tells them he is ex-military or provides security for high profile clients such as the Trump family, and then disappears after taking either money from the victims or their vehicles, according to investigators.
"His stories he's telling people are completely outlandish," Lubbers said. "Everything sounds like it's out of the movies."
In September, Sweet was charged in Utah's 5th District Court with three counts of communications fraud and theft, second-degree felonies. A no-bail arrest warrant was issued and remained outstanding as of Tuesday.
The investigation into that case began in July of 2025 when a woman who works in St. George contacted police. She "reported that she had been involved in what she initially thought was a relationship but turned out to be a romance scam. This was a complicated scheme and is one that was carried out by an experienced con man over an 11-month period," according to charging documents.
The woman met Sweet, who used an alias, in Mesquite, Nevada. He allegedly claimed he was a retired high ranking member of the U.S. Army who "was currently working in anti-human trafficking efforts. Mr. Sweet would only occasionally meet up with the victim in person and would be gone for weeks at a time on what he claimed were missions. He kept the details of his work vague and secret. Mr. Sweet convinced the victim that he could not give her complete details of his whereabouts due to the security risk it would present to him, and furthermore convinced her that they were constantly being monitored," the charges state.
Manipulation
During the relationship, Sweet further claimed "that he had been ordered to work in the protection of Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump. But then, at some point, there was a dispute between him and the Trumps, so he was now under more scrutiny from the administration," charging documents state.
Sweet also claimed he was involved in a "nasty child custody dispute" with an ex-wife whom he called a "rich, powerful, abusive woman," the charges state.
But investigators say Sweet also used the child custody story to "manipulate the victim and gain her trust," telling her that "he wanted to marry her, have her adopt his two children, and help protect them from their mother," charging documents allege. He "referred to the victim in text messages as his wife or future wife."
Detectives also noted that the woman was widowed after more than 30 years of marriage and "was lonely and was vulnerable."
In addition to claims about having a security background and an ongoing child custody case, Sweet claimed he had severe medical conditions that "required sudden, urgent treatments that also had to be kept a secret.
"All of this information was used as a pretext to manipulate the victim and, over time, steal money from her. He deceived her in various ways and bilked her of $82,591 over an 11-month period," according to charging documents. "There was rarely a day when the suspect did not order the victim to provide her credit card information to him or tell her to bring money to him."
At one point, Sweet encouraged the woman "to retire from her job and withdraw money from her retirement to give to him" while also claiming that "Donald Trump Jr. had advised him of an impending stock market crash," the charges say. "Based on these lies, the victim was manipulated into giving Mr. Sweet $27,000, which she had pulled from her retirement."
In February of 2025, Sweet took the woman's 2023 Chevrolet Silverado for what he said was a family vacation, but he never returned it and eventually cut off contact with her, police say. The vehicle was later recovered in Michigan.
The woman became "completely fed up with Mr. Sweet and began looking into the suspect's past through her own online research" and discovered "multiple news stories of Mr. Sweet perpetuating similar schemes in different states.
"Detectives performed a criminal records check on Mr. Sweet, and it was discovered that he has an extensive criminal history in fraud," including being convicted of a similar romance scheme in Tennessee in 2009, charging documents state. "In that case, Mr. Sweet alleged that he was in 'special forces' with the U.S. Coast Guard, was a millionaire, and that he worked for a man in the mob."
Prosecutors say Sweet's criminal history includes cases in Tennessee, Arizona and Michigan "for a myriad of theft and fraud charges."
New victim?
Now, St. George police are investigating another possible victim.
A woman says she met Sweet in Las Vegas in March. Sweet claimed he "was a combat veteran who was now working private security for high-profile guests at Circus Circus, such as Kid Rock and Wayne Newton," according to court documents.
On March 12, Sweet took the woman's 2018 Ford Explorer, and on March 13, the woman received a notification from her bank "that her debit card was used in Moapa, Nevada." As of Tuesday her car had not been found.
After the woman posted pictures of Sweet on social media, a St. George resident familiar with the Utah investigation contacted her and encouraged her to contact St. George police.
"Based on the information provided by (the woman), Todd Sweet is still preying on vulnerable women in the area. She advised that he had told her he frequents Mesquite, Nevada, Overton, Nevada and St. George," police wrote in a search warrant affidavit.
Lubbers says investigators believe Sweet is likely moving from motel to motel or campsite to campsite in the area between St. George and Laughlin, Nevada, and is good at staying "off the grid." He first finds his victims on social media and builds their trust before meeting them in person, and soon gets them to pay for everything, including phones, he said.
"He's this important guy who can't buy anything," said Lubbers who notes that should be a red flag to victims. "He has all this power but can't afford things."
Lubbers advises both woman and men — who he says have been victims too — to be skeptical. If someone has an outlandish story about their background, "In today's day and age you can verify a lot of things."
In February, the FBI's San Francisco Division reported that "victims across the San Francisco Division's territory lost more than $40 million to romance scams in 2025, a significant increase to the reported nearly $22 million in 2024."
Romance scams have also been a problem in Utah for several years. And while women over 40 who are divorced or widowed are commonly targeted, there have also been reports of men being victims. Additionally, elderly citizens are often targeted, many times by someone online whom the victim never actually meets in person.
