Two men from Las Vegas were sentenced for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a “grandparent” scheme that went through Western Pennsylvania
US Attorney Eric Olshan announced in a news release that 57-year-old Roderick Feurtado and 47-year-old Tarek Bouanne were ordered to serve time in jail and supervised release afterwards, and were ordered to pay $258,520 in restitution to 16 victims of their scheme. Feurtado will spend up to ten years in prison while Bouanne will spend nearly two years in prison. The two men travelled to the Pittsburgh region in September of 2021 and helped a group of people defaud the elderly.
The co-conspirators told their victims that a relative of theirs, usually a grandchild, was detained in connection with an investigation and needed money for bail. The victims were directed to withdraw the cash and provide it to a courier who would visit them at their homes. Bouanne acted as a courier, while Feurtado acted as a “safehouse” to provide directions to the victim’s house. The two planned to keep a portion of what was collected for themselves, and give the rest to their co-conspirators.
U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan said in his sentencing remarks that the harm the two caused was not just financial but emotional as well. Separately, three residents of Panama have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their alleged roles in masterminding the fraud scheme involving Bouanane and Feurtado, among other coconspirators, which spanned multiple locations throughout the United States in addition to the Western District of Pennsylvania. Cases against those three are pending.
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