Three people from the Dominican Republic were accused of being part of a scam carried out in their country against dozens of elderly Americans. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the scams amounted to millions of dollars, so three suspects were extradited to the United States to face justice.
Juan Rafael Parra Arias, 41; Miguel Angel Vasquez, 24, and Jose Ismael Dilone Rodriguez, 34, residents of Santiago de los Caballeros, appeared in the District Court of New Jersey, where a judge ordered their detention pending trial.
They face multiple charges
The three are part of a group of eleven Dominicans facing 19 charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as money laundering, among others, US authorities reported.
Five other people were also charged as part of the alleged scam ring. The defendants participated in a long-running scam operated from a call center in the Dominican Republic that targeted several seniors residing in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, the DOJ said in a statement.
They lied to the grandparents to scam them
“Parra Arias allegedly operated a network of call centers in Santiago, Dominican Republic, while Vásquez and Dilone Rodríguez worked at these centers to recruit accomplices in the United States.”
The scam began with members of the conspiracy appointing “openers” and calling the elderly pretending to be children, grandchildren or other close relatives, asking for financial help to get out of a problem following a car accident, saying that they had been arrested in connection with the accident and that they needed help.
The scam was carried out from centers in the Dominican Republic that used technology to make it appear that the calls came from a U.S. phone number.
They were convinced to send the money
Once the “openers” succeeded in convincing the victims, other alleged scammers working at the call centers, known as “closers,” allegedly posed as defense attorneys, police officers or court personnel and convinced the victims to provide thousands of dollars in cash to help their loved ones.
“The cash was typically retrieved by couriers, including those recruited and delivered by Parra Arias, Vasquez and Dilone Rodriguez, from victims’ homes, or sent by victims at the direction of those in charge of shutting down the operations,” DOJ said in the statement.
“These three defendants played a role in a scheme that relied on the love and devotion of elderly victims to deceive them out of millions of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said in the statement.
“Grandparents scams”
“The Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Division and its law enforcement partners will aggressively pursue criminals who defraud victims through so-called ‘grandparent scams,’” said Principal Deputy Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
These men and their co-conspirators are accused of robbing countless elderly victims of their life savings.
“The grandparent scam is a cruel fraud scheme that deliberately preys on elderly and vulnerable individuals within society. The perpetrators, often cowardly operating overseas, cause extreme emotional and financial harm to the innocent people they target by committing this crime,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Bradley Parker.
If all three defendants are convicted, each faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count, a maximum fine of $250,000 for each count of mail and wire fraud, and a maximum fine of $500,000 for conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering.
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