CBC Information is investigating grandparent scams and their hyperlink to Montreal. This story is an element one of a three-part sequence.
In June 2024, eight younger women and men had been working the telephones inside a squat, two-storey constructing subsequent to Lakeshore Highway in Pointe-Claire, a suburb in Montreal’s West Island, when law enforcement officials stormed in.
In an indictment unsealed earlier this month, Michael Drescher, the district legal professional of Vermont, stated the group was caught within the act that day. They had been putting cellphone calls to “aged victims in Virginia,” pretending to be their grandkids and asking for cash.
Drescher alleged that the group, and 17 different Canadians — practically all from the Montreal space, and lots of from the West Island suburbs — was a part of an elaborate worldwide rip-off community that defrauded tons of of American seniors out of a complete of greater than $21 million US.
The indictment particulars how the group, and their alleged accomplices, carried out a fastidiously choreographed fraud — generally known as a grandparent rip-off — at a number of name centres within the Montreal space, allegedly underneath the management of Gareth West, a 38-year-old from Burlington, Ont.
But it surely was not the primary time law enforcement officials raided rip-off name centres within the Montreal space and arrested teams — known as “cells” in court docket paperwork — concerned in grandparent scams.
CBC Information has discovered that police focused the same grandparent rip-off community working in Montreal simply months earlier that was strikingly just like the latest case. Police and specialists say the scams seem like related to organized crime.
‘Hello grandma’
American officers consider West’s alleged grandparent rip-off operation started in the summertime of 2021, mere months after the authorities broke up a unique operation allegedly run by a Montrealer named Anthony David Di Rienzo.
A abstract of info filed in court docket detailing the allegations in opposition to Di Rienzo says his rip-off started in 2019 and ran till March 24, 2021, when police arrested 15 folks within the Montreal space and concurrently arrested U.S. accomplices whose job was to gather cash from victims.
The allegations in opposition to Di Rienzo and his group mirror those in opposition to West and his group.
As an example, each networks completely focused seniors within the U.S. Each concerned a number of “cells” working out of “name centres.” Each employed groups within the U.S. whose job was to select up the cash despatched by a sufferer to deserted or vacant addresses within the U.S.
Police have raided a number of main grandparent rip-off operations in Montreal lately, arresting scammers that allegedly bilked victims out of tens of millions of {dollars}. We break down what we discovered in regards to the scams and who they affect.
Courtroom paperwork filed within the Di Rienzo case allege that the group focused American seniors and diversified the states they had been calling every day as a result of they believed it made it tougher for police to trace them down.
The authorities in each the U.S. and in Canada have levelled related claims in opposition to each of the teams allegedly run by West and Di Rienzo. The teams allegedly had related organizational constructions and selected their victims in related methods: police say the pinnacle of the community delivered day by day lists of potential victims to the cells.
These lists contained data together with the title, age, handle, cellphone quantity and earnings of potential victims. Neither the court docket paperwork filed within the U.S. or in Canada say the place these lists got here from, however police have stated the data might have come from knowledge leaks and even merely from publicly obtainable sources.
The cells then known as the victims, and, based on dialog recordings obtained by police by means of wiretaps within the Di Rienzo case, they began every name with the identical phrases: “Hello, grandpa” or “Hello, grandma.”
What adopted was a fastidiously orchestrated fraud to persuade the aged sufferer that the scammer was really the sufferer’s grandchild and wanted cash. Normally, they stated they’d been wrongfully accused of a drug crime and required a surety — sometimes round $9,000 for bail.
As soon as the sufferer was adequately satisfied, different cell members known as them, this time pretending to be law enforcement officials or attorneys, giving them the small print of how and the place to ship the cash.
Courtroom paperwork each within the U.S. and Canada say the Di Rienzo and West scams used that very same technique to persuade tons of of American seniors to ship cash, however they focused 1000’s of potential victims. Every cell allegedly known as dozens of individuals per day.
However all of the whereas, each teams attracted the eye of police within the U.S. and in Montreal, ending of their eventual arrests and prison fees being laid.
A spokesperson for Quebec’s provincial police power, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), which was closely concerned within the operation that led to Di Rienzo’s arrest, stated the 2 investigations had been separate and police had not linked them.
Steve Belzil, the pinnacle of the financial crimes division on the Service de Police de la ville de Montréal, stated Montreal police and their companions on the Ontario Provincial Police and Homeland Safety within the U.S. have been lively in investigating grandparent scammers in Montreal.
However he stated rip-off name centres function throughout the nation, not simply in Montreal. Nonetheless, he famous that investigators within the metropolis have established hyperlinks between the grandparent rip-off networks and bigger organized crime teams.
Organized crime hyperlinks
Belzil stated the foremost grandparent rip-off networks in Montreal are likely to have connections to the Italian Mafia.
On that day in March 2021, when police had been conducting raids in Montreal and within the U.S., arresting Di Rienzo’s alleged group, Quebec provincial police arrested a person named Francesco Sollecito.
Sollecito’s title seems in court docket paperwork tied to the case as a “related particular person” who communicated utilizing the title “Frank.”
However although the paperwork say he was arrested alongside Di Rienzo and the remainder of the group who had been later charged, Sollecito was not.
A spokesperson for the director of prison prosecutions in Quebec, the DPCP, stated they may not, on this case, disclose the the reason why no fees had been laid. Sollecito has by no means been charged with against the law in Quebec.
Sollecito is among the sons of Rocco Sollecito, who was an ally of the Rizzutos, the reputed crime household that dominated the Montreal Mafia for years. Rocco was shot lifeless in Laval, Que., in 2016.
However there are rumours that his son Stefano Sollecito, Francesco’s brother, could have taken over as one of many heads of the Mafia in Montreal, based on Antonio Nicaso, a Mafia professional who has authored greater than 40 books on organized crime and teaches the topic at Queen’s College.
Stefano was charged with gangsterism and conspiracy to site visitors narcotics however he was acquitted in 2018.
Nicaso stated organized crime has been making an attempt to diversify its income streams and will have been seeking to see if grandparent scams are a viable supply of earnings.
And if they are not already concerned, they very seemingly will probably be quickly, he stated.
“I’ve the sensation that that is what occurred or what’s going to occur within the close to future as a result of there’s some huge cash to be made,” he stated.
Fraudsters are getting extra subtle. Listed below are some tips about how you can assist your loved ones members determine a possible rip-off.
Trial later this yr
The boys alleged to be behind the Di Rienzo rip-off group have been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud and tried fraud. Their case is winding by means of the courts and will go to trial later this yr.
The 25 folks not too long ago charged within the West group are going through wire fraud fees within the U.S. Most of them face a most penalty of 20 years in jail if convicted, however the alleged leaders of the group might spend 40 years behind bars if convicted. Two of them, West and Jimmy Ylimaki, stay at giant.
Not one of the fees have been examined in court docket.
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