A Chester County man pleaded guilty on Thursday, March 24, to one count of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering in connection with a telemarketing scheme that bilked tens of thousands of senior citizens out of more than $13 million, federal prosecutors said.
U.S. District Court Judge Gerald A. McHugh Jr. scheduled a sentencing hearing for Marc Roy Ferry, 35, of Downingtown, on June 22.
According to court documents, between 2009 and March 2014, Ferry and Ari Tietolman, charged elsewhere, and others, used Tietolman’s network of telemarketers in Canada and India to target American senior citizens with deceptive telemarketing calls. They sold worthless or non-existent services and then debited the victims’ bank accounts without their consent.
Using the business names Fraud Watch, Patient Assistance Plus, Legal Eye and Trust One, the worthless or non-existent services these telemarketers sold included purported fraud protection and discounted legal services, as well as a discount prescription card. Tietolman and others, it is alleged, had been running the scheme since at least 2005.
During the calls, Tietolman’s telemarketers made various false representations, such as that they were calling on behalf of, or were affiliated with, the victim’s bank, or insurance company, or the U.S. government. In addition to misrepresenting the value of the products being marketed, Tietolman’s telemarketers also misrepresented their cost, sometimes telling consumers the products were free, or less expensive than the amount that was ultimately debited from the consumers’ bank accounts.
Tietolman allegedly attempted to conceal his involvement in the scheme by employing Ferry and others to run “front” companies - including First Consumers, LLC - and open bank accounts in the companies’ names to process the fraud money. Ferry admitted that Tietolman paid him and others to form U.S. corporations. The sole purpose of these corporations was to process the fraud proceeds generated by the telemarketing scheme, said a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Ferry sent Tietolman online logins and passwords so Tietolman and others could control the bank accounts from Canada. Tietolman also allegedly sent Ferry and others bank account information for the U.S. victims, which was used to print remotely created checks (RCCs). The RCCs were all made payable to the fraud companies and did not require a signature by the account holder, the release said.
Because the RCCs did not require the account holder’s consent, each time a check was created and submitted to the bank for payment, the victim had no opportunity to object or prevent the debit from occurring. Ferry and others deposited the RCCs in bank accounts held by the fraud companies, allegedly per Tietolman’s instructions, the release said.
Tietolman, according to court documents, instructed Ferry and others to deposit the RCCs in batches of less than $10,000 to avoid federally-mandated reporting requirements. After the checks were deposited, Tietolman instructed Ferry and others to wire the majority of the funds to accounts in Canada.
Ferry faces a maximum possible sentence of 70 years in prison; restitution to the victims, three years of supervised release; a possible fine or up to double the amount involved in the money laundering; and a $300 special assessment, the release said.
The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case, the release said.
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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