Man sentenced in Kentucky in $3 million ‘grandparent scam’
A Canadian citizen who took part in a scam to bilk older victims in Kentucky and across the U.S. out of $3 million has been sentenced to five years and one month in federal prison.
Phillipe Gravel-Nadon, 35, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Gravel-Nadon helped manage a large-scale grandparent scam, a type of scam in which people call victims and convince them they need to send money to help a grandchild or other family member who is in trouble, according to the court record.
The pitch typically involves telling the victim that a family member has been in a car wreck or is in legal trouble.
Scammers often pressure victims to send them money, but in the scheme in which Gravel-Nadon was involved, they sent couriers to victims’ homes to pick up cash, according to the court record.
That made the scam seem more legitimate, but also left victims with even greater fear after figuring out they’d been conned, because they knew a criminal had visited their home, the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Corinne E. Keel, said in a sentencing memorandum.
“Grandparent scams like this one create a sense of fear and urgency, effectively preying on victim panic to convince them to hand over thousands of dollars before they realize they’re being scammed,” Keel wrote.
The scam worked out of call centers in Canada, federal authorities said.
Gravel-Nadon made travel arrangements for people picking up money from victims and gave them directions while they were in the U.S.
His conduct contributed to more than $3 million in losses, the prosecutor said.
Gravel-Nadon’s sentence makes him liable for $963,290 in restitution. The court record did not identify how many victims were in Kentucky or where they lived.
U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom sentenced Gravel-Nadon on June 12 in Louisville.
He was the final defendant to be sentenced in the case in Kentucky, according to a news release.
Others sentenced earlier were Robert Louis Sanchez, 58, of Albuquerque; Jairo Ostia Roberts, 44, who traveled from Panama to the U.S. to work as a courier; Abel Diaz Adames, 40, who also traveled from Panama to be pick up money from victims; Christopher Courcoulacos, 47, a Canadian citizen who helped manage the scam; and Mark Anthony Phillips, 45, of Ruskin, Fla., another manager.
U.S. Attorney Kyle Bumgarner said in a release that schemes like the one in this case are becoming more prevalent.
He urged people to be skeptical of any call “that presents you with an urgent situation that can be remedied by an immediate payment of money.”
“Those requests are generally a fraud, and you should have the courage to hang up the phone when the caller pushes you even harder for money,” Bumgarner said.
The Federal Communications Commission has tips to avoid being victimized in a grandparent scam.
