Elaborate ‘grandparent scam’ ringleader granted day parole

The leader of a group of fraud artists who scammed elderly people collectively out of roughly half a million dollars through a so-called grandparent scam has been granted day parole.

Patrick Dinucci, 34, was arrested in Italy in 2016 when the Montreal police arrested more than 20 people in the greater Montreal area as part of an investigation dubbed Project Foyer.

The fraudsters would call elderly people and pretend to be related to them, posing as their grandchild, niece or nephew. Once they had a vulnerable person convinced they were related, they would claim they needed money for an emergency. For example, in some cases the fraud artists convinced their vulnerable targets that they had caused a car accident by driving while impaired and needed money right away to avoid being charged.

When the arrests were made two years ago, Montreal police estimated victims lost between $1,000 and $100,000. They also estimated that between 2014 and 2016 the network defrauded up to 500 victims in Quebec, including 350 in Montreal, out of a total of $2.5 million. The victims ranged in age between 51 and 96.

According to the summary of a decision made by the Parole Board of Canada on Thursday, Dinucci has admitted to having led a network that tried to steal roughly $900,000 from 135 victims and managed to collect $500,000.

After a fraudster convinced a vulnerable person they should give them money, they would inform Dinucci. He would dispatch another person in his network to collect the cash. In some cases the people sent to collect money posed as lawyers and used the names of actual lawyers practising law in Montreal to pull off their scams.

As part of the four-year sentence he was handed in September 2017, he and an accomplice have been ordered to pay back $100,000 over the next 10 years. He pleaded guilty to fraud, conspiracy and being in possession of the proceeds of crime just five months after authorities in Italy returned Dinucci to Canada on April 30, 2017.

The summary also reveals that Dinucci admitted he began to organize the grandparent scam after having invested a lot of money in a company that was supposed to produce pornographic films. The document also describes how, shortly after he arrived in a federal penitentiary, Dinucci finally admitted he was the leader of the network and acknowledged he had destroyed the lives of many vulnerable people.

While characterizing his crimes as “reprehensible,” the parole board also took note of how Dinucci has spent his time behind bars “in a constructive way.”

Andre Westerhout, 33, a heroin addict who admitted he made initial contacts with at least 30 of the victims, was granted day parole in August. He also was sentenced to a four-year prison term after pleading guilty to the same charges as Dinucci.

Two other men who played leading roles in the fraud network — Avy Victor Doron, 48, and 30-year-old Adam Krajicek — were sentenced to prison terms of 66 months and 12 months respectively.