GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Portage man is going to prison for his part in a scheme that defrauded 1,500-plus elderly people of more than $560,000.
Irfan Gill, 63, was sentenced to 8 years in prison after being convicted his trial of 7 counts of mail fraud and 11 counts of money laundering in connection with an international telemarketing scheme.
Gill also was ordered to pay $561,980.27 restitution to the victims.
"Irfan Gill preyed on older Americans to pad his own pocket, leaving victims scared and ruined,” said U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten.
The evidence presented at trial showed that between at least June 2018 and March 2022 Gill worked with a call center in Pakistan that defrauded more than 1,500 primarily elderly people across America into paying a total of more than $560,000 for cable and satellite television upgrades and subscription discounts that were never provided.
Callers in Pakistan convinced victims to mail checks and money orders to post office boxes in Portage, including in some cases by threatening to terminate victims’ television services. Gill retrieved victims’ payments and deposited them into bank accounts in the names of fake cable and satellite television businesses.
Gill kept track of the payments, attributing specific victims to specific overseas callers, and calculated how much money to keep for himself and how much to wire to Pakistan. He avoided detection by opening multiple post office boxes and bank accounts for his fake companies and by making efforts to convince several bank investigators that his fake companies were legitimate.
“This sentencing highlights the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s dedication to safeguarding our most vulnerable citizens, especially the elderly, from those who seek to exploit them for personal financial gain,” said Inspector in Charge Rodney M. Hopkins of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Detroit Division. “This individual’s fraudulent activities inflicted untold financial and emotional distress on the victims, and today’s sentencing reaffirms our commitment to protecting the public from such schemes."
“Every day these scams happen across America and target vulnerable members of our communities," said Totten. "We’re fighting to hold these criminals accountable, but above all want to prevent these crimes.”
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