A Montreal man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Pennsylvania court for a telemarketing scam that defrauded American seniors out of millions of dollars.
First charged by U.S. authorities in 2017, Ari Tietolman was extradited from Canada to the United States last year. He pleaded guilty in January to three counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering.
Tietolman, 50, ran his “massive fraud” from Montreal between 2005 and 2014, according to a statement released Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit claims his telemarketing team successfully sold tens of thousands of seniors in the United States worthless or nonexistent fraud protection services, discount cards for prescription drugs and discounted legal services.
“Ari Tietolman ran a nearly 10-year scam that defrauded seniors out of millions of hard-earned dollars,” U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said in the release. “Specifically targeting seniors because you view them as easy prey is disgraceful.”
According to the indictment, Tietolman and his partners allegedly defrauded their victims of $13 million since May 2011.
A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said Tietolman had already been in pretrial detention for 14 months, which will be deducted from his 10-year prison sentence. Tietolman was also ordered to repay $7 million to his victims.
The indictment says the telemarketers often told their victims they were calling on behalf of their bank, insurance company or the U.S. government. They sometimes claimed the products were free or cheaper than the amount that was ultimately withdrawn from their bank accounts.
In some cases, they assured victims that they would not debit their bank account, but then did so as soon as the person provided them with their banking information.
Most of the telemarketers worked in “pressure sales offices” in Montreal, while some worked in India.
Two of Tietolman’s associates have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Adam Harper worked with Tietolman in Montreal, while Marc Roy Ferry, in Pennsylvania, ran shell companies in the United States to process the fraud money and transfer most of it to bank accounts in Canada.