Tampa Man Convicted of Stealing From Elderly People With Phone Scam

TAMPA, FL — A 28-year-old Tampa man is headed to federal prison after pleaded guilty to taking part in an India-based phone scam in which conspirators pretended to be IRS and FBI agents and threatened elderly people into turning over their money or be framed on bogus drug or money laundering charges.

U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew sentenced William Perez to 18 months in federal prison this week for conspiracy to commit money laundering. As part of his sentence, he must also forfeit $245,980 he received from his crimes. Perez pleaded guilty on Aug. 31.

According to court documents, Perez was part of an India-based group of conspirators who pretended to be Social Security Administration officials, FBI agents or IRS officers.

They would call mostly elderly people, give badge numbers and official titles, and convince them that they were federal officials investigating crimes the elderly people have been accused of committing.

Then they would threaten the elderly people with imminent arrest, lawsuits or economic penalties if they didn't mail checks to or hand over cash to co-conspirators living in the United States.

According to court records, from April 2018 through at least August, Perez laundered money that had been extorted from U.S. residents by conspirators living in the United States and overseas. Perez received payments directly from victims, typically via packages sent by a commercial carrier and then would forward them to his Indian co-conspirators who would pay him for scamming the victims.

“Millions of Americans, including the most vulnerable of the population, have fallen victim to IRS impersonation scheme telephone calls which ultimately led to the loss of their life savings,” said Ronald A. Loecker, IRS acting special agent in charge. “Today’s sentence again demonstrates our persistent resolve to hold fraudsters accountable for taking advantage of both the system and the elderly with the hope justice has been served."

“The treasury inspector general for tax administration will aggressively pursue anyone who defrauds taxpayers by impersonating themselves as Internal Revenue Service employees,” said J. Russell George, treasury inspector general for the tax administration. “We greatly appreciate the efforts of our federal partners in holding this individual to account.”