The Region - News from March 4, 1987

Federal authorities in Los Angeles are searching for a 68-year-old grandmother accused of swindling about 100 victims out of more than $3 million in a wholesale carpet investment fraud scheme. FBI spokesman Fred Reagan said Gertrude M. Pruett has been a fugitive since April, 1985, when she and her son, Harold, were indicted by a federal grand jury on fraud charges. They said the Pruetts solicited investors in a carpet company called Carpetmasters, claiming that they sold millions of dollars in carpeting annually, but actually sold almost no carpeting at all. “She took flight to Sri Lanka after the indictment, but has returned to the Los Angeles area and may be working as a housekeeper,” Reagan said. Harold Pruett was convicted of 20 counts of fraud last year and sentenced to 10 years in prison.