Montgomery County judge’s wife allegedly defrauded of $30K

Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough’s wife was defrauded of $30,000 by a Wisconsin woman posing as a Best Buy Geek Squad employee, court records allege. Deborah Diane Ramsdell, 63, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, is charged with the third-degree felony offense of money laundering between $30,000 and $150,000 in bank transactions in November with a Montgomery County resident identified as “K. Keough,” according to district clerk records. As of Wednesday, Ramsdell was being held on a $20,000 bond at the Montgomery County Jail in Conroe, jail records show. Ramsdell was taken into custody May 27 in Travis County by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, according to jail records. Judge Keough confirmed on Friday that his wife, Kimberly Keough, was the K. Keough in the case. He declined commenting on the criminal case against Ramsdell, citing the possibility of civil litigation.

Ramsdell’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Kimberly Keough on Nov. 16 received an email invoice purporting to be from Geek Squad on a two-year security plan, and called the attached customer-support number to cancel the $359.99 subscription, according to a probable cause affidavit filed May 25 by a Montgomery County Precinct 3 constable’s detective. According to charging documents, Keough wanted to cancel her subscription because the invoice listed its price as costlier than she had ever paid for it before. The phone call-respondent instructed Kimberly Keough to install TeamViewer, a remote access software that enabled online access to her computer, according to the affidavit. The person on the phone line simulated a transaction falsely showing Keough had been reimbursed more money than owed and then convinced her to wire $70,000 from Keough’s Montgomery County bank to an account at BMO Harris Bank, whose beneficiary would later be identified as Ramsdell, court documents show. After the wire transfer was made, Keough continued receiving phone calls requesting additional wire transfers to other banks, according to the affidavit. “It was at this time that K. Keough knew that she was defrauded,” the affidavit stated.