Nearly two dozen people, including 10 from the West Island, have been arrested and are wanted in the U.S. where they are alleged to have been part of a large-scale grandparent scam.
Recommended Videos
On Tuesday, police officers from the RCMP and Sûreté du Québec fanned out in and around the Montreal island and other parts of Quebec and arrested 23 people sought in an extradition request from the U.S.
A warrant that was unsealed this week out of a U.S. District Court in Vermont alleges the suspects “engaged in a ‘grandparent scam’ involving phone calls made from call centres in and around Montreal. During these phone calls, defendants falsely claimed to be an elderly victim’s relative, typically a grandchild, who had been arrested following a car crash and needed money for ‘bail’.”
Other people posed as an attorney representing the targeted victim’s relative. The victims were often told that there was a gag order in place to prevent the elderly victim from telling anyone about their family member’s arrest, which never actually occurred, the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont said in a release.
”Elderly victims were convinced to provide bail money to an individual falsely posing as a bail bondsman, who would come to the elderly victim’s home to collect the money. This money was later transmitted to Canada following cash deliveries and financial transactions, sometimes involving cryptocurrency, which, the indictment alleges, obscured the source of the money and the identities of defendants.
“The conspiracy defrauded elderly Americans out of more than $21 million.”
The release singles out five people — Gareth West, 38, of Burlington, Ont., Usman Khalid, 36, of Les Coteaux, Andrew Tatto, 43, of Pierrefonds, Stephan Moskwyn, 42, of Pierrefonds and Ricky Ylimaki, 31, of Île-Perrot — as being the managers of “call centres” used in the fraud scheme. They face additional charges of conspiring to commit money laundering.
Other suspects were arrested in Kirkland, Pointe-Claire and Dollard-des-Ormeaux.
The extradition cases are scheduled to return to the Montreal courthouse early in April.
On Wednesday, the case against one of the accused, Adam Lawrence, 41, of LaSalle, was called up before Superior Court Justice Lyne Décarie at the Montreal courthouse. Lawrence was initially not allowed to enter the Montreal Detention Centre following his arrest because of a clerical error in his date of birth. He was ultimately detained at the detention centre, also known as the Bordeaux Jail, and his date of birth was corrected for the court record.
Two people who are alleged to be part of the ring — West and Jimmy Ylimaki 35, of Île-Perrot — are still being sought by police.