Gareth West, 38, Burlington, Ontario, Canada and Jimmy Ylimaki, 35, of Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Québec, Canada are at large. They are among the 25 Canadians accused of participating in a scam that defrauded elderly individuals in Vermont, United States and more than 40 other states in the U.S. out of more than $21 million.
Between the summer of 2021 and June 4, 2024, the 25 suspects allegedly engaged in a scam involving phone calls made from call centers in an around Montreal, Quebec. The victims were reportedly told by the callers that a relative, usually a grandchild, needed money for bail after being arrested due to a car crash.
Some of the suspects allegedly posed as an attorney representing the elderly victim’s relative. Convinced that there a gag order in place, the elderly victims did not tell other people about the supposed arrest and provided money to the suspects.
Someone posing as a bail bondsman would come to the victim’s residence to collect the money, which would be transmitted to Canada. It would be done through cash deliveries and financial transactions that sometimes involved cryptocurrency, which obscured the source of the money and the fraudsters’ identities.
In 2022, the Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Sûreté du Québec started an investigation. On June 4, 2024, law enforcement in Canada executed search warrants at several call centers and caught many of the suspects in the act of placing phone calls to elderly victims in Virginia, USA.
The call centers were managed by West, Ylimaki, Andrew Tatto, 43, of Pierrefonds, Québec, Ricky Ylimaki, 31, of Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Stephan Moskwyn, 42, of Pierrefonds and Usman Khalid, 36, of Les Coteaux, Québec. They were each charged with conspiring to commit money laundering.
Authorities have yet to confirm how Jimmy and Ricky are related. Jimmy is also known as Coop while Ricky is also known as Ruffles.
West is also known as Buddy and Muscles. Except him and Jimmy, all of the suspects were arrested in Canada on March 4, 2025.
CONAN Daily 