Jeannette carpenter sentenced to a year in prison in IRS impersonation scam originating in India

Those calls from the IRS saying you owe money?

They’re bogus, and one of the guys you can blame for them was punished Monday in federal court in Pittsburgh with a year in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines imposed that term on Michael Galanis, a 34-year-old carpenter from Jeannette, and told him to pay $7,500 in restitution to the people he helped rip off.

Galanis and two accused Western Pennsylvania men, Barry Nealer and Ronnell Taylor, had been indicted in 2020 after an investigation by the U.S. Treasury, U.S. Homeland Security and postal inspectors.

Galanis participated in the IRS impersonation scheme from March 2016 to August 2017 involving call centers in India that used phone numbers to make it look like calls were originating in the U.S.

Those calls provided recorded information purportedly from the IRS saying the recipient had failed to pay taxes. The calls provided a U.S.-based number for the recipient to call to resolve the issue.

Calls to those numbers were automatically forwarded to call centers in India, where scammers told callers they owed money and demanded payment by gift card or some other means.

Galanis’ role was to activate the cellphones in the U.S. to assist in the scheme, knowing that the phones he programmed were being used to steal from people.

The overall loss was between $150,000 and $250,000, the local U.S. attorney’s office estimated.

Prosecutors agreed with the defense that Galanis was a bit player in the conspiracy and left the sentencing to the judge without making recommendations as they normally do.

Sentencing guidelines called for prison, but Galanis and his lawyer, Robert Carey Jr., argued for a variance that would avoid jail altogether. Carey said his client has no criminal record, has been an otherwise hard-working carpenter who also runs a wholesale business and a clothing line, and had a challenging upbringing with an absentee father.

He also said Galanis didn’t have any contact with the scam leaders in India.

“Michael Galanis is motivated and successful,” Carey said. “He has, in large part, lived a crime-free life. His goal is to repay the debt arising from his mistakes and make his victims whole.”

He wanted probation for his client, but the judge decided on 12 months behind bars followed by two years of probation.

The U.S. attorney’s office last year dropped its charges against Nealer, 42, of Pittsburgh. Taylor, 39, of Jeannette, pleaded guilty in the fall and is awaiting sentencing.