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Quebec Man Sentenced for Telemarketing Scheme
A 48-year-old man from Ville St. Laurent, Quebec, Canada, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar telemarketing scheme that deceived thousands of United States businesses.
Athanasios Vouloukos pleaded guilty to the mail fraud conspiracy charge on January 28, 2020, and was sentenced by the Honorable Susan Illston, United States District Judge, to a 30-month prison sentence, a three-year period of supervision following his release, and ordered to pay at least $1.4 million in restitution to his victims.
According to his plea agreement, Vouloukos and his co-conspirators operated a Canada-based telemarketing scheme over a five-year period to defraud small United States businesses into paying for a service that purported to enhance their online profile.
The service, described as “business listing optimization,” “business profile optimization,” and “online business listing optimization,” did not exist, and the telemarketing scheme involved calling the businesses about the fraudulent invoices and falsely asserting that the businesses had ordered the service.
Over the five-year period, thousands of small United States businesses paid approximately $500 each for the non-existent services, with the majority of the proceeds deposited into Canadian bank accounts. The scheme collected more than $3 million in victim deposits.
The case is being prosecuted by the Corporate and Securities Fraud section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and is the result of an investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigation.
Key Facts
- State: California
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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