A Southern California man will spend seven years in jail after orchestrating a multi-million dollar financial fraud scheme that targeted the elderly.
Sylas Verdzekov was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty last year to one federal count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, reports NBC Los Angeles.
Prosecutors say that from November 2021 to February 2025, the 39-year-old and his associates made fake identification documents of fictitious people and then used these to create at least 36 shell companies.
Using the fake identities and the sham businesses, the fraudsters opened 145 bank accounts and at least 32 private mailboxes across Southern California that they used to commit their crimes.
One of their schemes specifically scammed the elderly using phone calls and email pop-ups. They posed as law enforcement personnel or employees of well-known companies who claimed they can protect their target victims’ bank and payment accounts.
Verdzekov and his accomplices told the victims that their accounts were compromised and then advised them to move the funds into accounts that they controlled.
In another scheme, Verdzekov and his co-conspirators also posed as real estate owners who made victims believe that they were entering a legitimate sale of property.
Prosecutors say that the defendants laundered at least $10 million in funds from at least 100 individuals.
U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. has ordered Verdzekov to pay $10.5 million in restitution to the victims.
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