A Southern California man will spend seven years in prison after organizing a multimillion-dollar financial fraud scheme that targeted seniors.
Silas Verdzikov was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty last year to one federal count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Reports NBC Los Angeles.
Prosecutors say that from November 2021 to February 2025, the 39-year-old and his associates prepared false identity documents for fictitious people and then used them to create at least 36 shell companies.
Using fake identities and shell companies, the fraudsters opened 145 bank accounts and at least 32 private mailboxes across Southern California that they used to commit their crimes.
One of their schemes specifically defrauded seniors using phone calls and email pop-ups. They posed as law enforcement officers or employees of well-known companies and claimed that they could protect the bank and payment accounts of targeted victims.
Ferdzikov and his accomplices told victims that their accounts had been hacked and then advised them to move the money to accounts they controlled.
In another scheme, Ferdzikov and his co-conspirators also posed as property owners who made the victims believe they were entering into a legitimate sale of property.
Prosecutors say the defendants laundered at least $10 million from the funds of at least 100 individuals.
U.S. District Judge Andre Bierut Jr. ordered Verdzikov to pay $10.5 million in restitution to the victims.
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