Canadian Man Sentenced For Defrauding Elderly Victims

ALBANY, NEW YORK – JASON S. KATZ, age 47, of Quebec, Canada, was sentenced today to thirty months in prison by United States District Court Judge Mae A. D’Agostino, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Homeland Security Investigations Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Nicholas J. DiNicola. The defendant was also fined $10,000 and required to pay restitution of $8,000 to two victims. The sentence follows KATZ’s September 27, 2013 guilty plea to two counts of wire fraud. Judge D’Agostino ordered that KATZ begin serving his sentence immediately.

According to the plea agreement, between May and August 2012, KATZ was involved in an international telemarketing scheme targeting elderly victims. The victims, ages 95 and 86 at the time, were repeatedly solicited over the telephone and instructed to wire tens of thousands of dollars to KATZ’s bank account in Plattsburgh, NY. The victims were told the money would be used to help arrange for the release of the victim’s child or grandchild from a Mexican jail and to pay fines associated with traffic accidents. At times, the caller impersonated the victim’s child or grandchild. KATZ was in Europe on a cruise in July 2012 when one of the victims wired him $42,000 under the belief that the funds would be used to help procure the release of her grandson from a Mexican jail. Judge D’Agostino described the fraud as “despicable.”

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, the Columbia Township Police Department in Brooklyn, Michigan, and the Waterloo, New York Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Wayne A. Myers.