Three reputed leaders of a “grandparents scam” operating out of Panama to fleece elderly Americans of $1.5 million to release grandchildren from fictitious legal cases have been arrested by federal authorities on indictments filed under seal in Pittsburgh last year.
Cesar Javier Chourio Morante, Samuel David Ferrer Avila and Stefano Zanetti were indicted last year on multiple counts of directing the activities of couriers who collected bogus bail money from victims across the U.S., including in Pittsburgh.
The case was unsealed Monday following their arrests earlier this month. Morante and Avila are both citizens of Venezuela living in Panama, and Zanetti, a citizen of Panama, was living in Canada.
The three face counts of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
Other bail bond scammers have been prosecuted here in recent years, although it’s not clear if all the cases are related. Last month, for example, Adrian Orozco Perez, 26, of Florida, described as a courier acting as a fake bail bondsman, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for ripping off elderly people of some $158,000.
Perez was not an organizer, however; he traveled around the country to pick up money from victims whom other conspirators had convinced had to pay to get their grandchildren released from jails.
Typically, the scammers call the victims and tell them a grandchild is being held by police and needs cash to make bail. Sometimes the criminals even impersonate the child. Some victims pay up and the couriers go collect those payments. In the case of Morante and the others, the couriers traveled to Georgia, Idaho, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
The grand jury said Morante, Avila and Zanetti were bosses who directed the couriers and others and controlled the operation.
They gave the couriers instructions on how not to be detected, such as driving past a victim’s house to make sure no vehicles were nearby, using aliases and wearing a hat and a mask to disguise themselves. They also provided instructions on how to wire money, ship bulk cash or convert the proceeds into cryptocurrency to avoid law enforcement.
The grand jury said the three men communicated with others in the ring by messaging apps Signal and WhatsApp.
In all, they brought in some $1.5 million.
The indictment says they worked with 10 underlings identified as “Courier 1,” “Courier 2” and the like, although none are named.
As part of the case, prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of $245,920 seized from two accomplices in Pittsburgh in September 2021 and other proceeds totaling $1.5 million.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
