Vermont Business Magazine Jimmy Ylimaki, 36, of Quebec, Canada, made his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont on March 24, in connection with an indictment charging him with participating in a “grandparent scam.”
Ylimaki was apprehended in Nicaragua and was removed to the United States. Ylimaki entered a plea of not guilty to the charge before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle for the District of Vermont, who ordered that Ylimaki be detained pending trial.
According to court records, a “grandparent scam” is a telemarketing fraud scheme involving phone calls made to elderly individuals. The initial callers typically pose as a member of the elderly victim’s family (usually a grandchild) and claim – falsely – to be in legal trouble, such as a motor vehicle accident. A second person posing as an “attorney” representing the family member then states that the elderly victim of the scam needs to provide a large sum of cash – typically thousands or tens of thousands of dollars – to bail the family member out of jail. The “attorneys” involved in this scam often identify themselves by various fictitious names, which sometimes are re-used in connection with calls to multiple elderly victims. Callers utilize a script, which has been crafted over time to refine the deception that is at the heart of the scam. The elderly victim is then instructed to provide the “bail money” to a “bail bondsman” who comes to the elderly victim’s home to collect the money later the same day.
According to court records, Ylimaki played the role of the “attorney” in the “grandparent scam.” Ylimaki was initially encountered inside a call center in Quebec when Canadian law enforcement executed a search warrant on June 4, 2024. Ylimaki is alleged to have been actively placing calls in the moments before the search warrant, and multiple “call lists” containing names, addresses, phone numbers, ages, and annual incomes of elderly Americans were found on his desk.
Ylimaki faces a maximum penalty of 20 years of in prison, if convicted. The actual sentence, however, would be determined by the District Court with guidance from the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the statutory sentencing factors.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan A. Ophardt for the District of Vermont commended the investigatory efforts of Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation, as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and recognized the contributions of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service in assisting with locating Ylimaki in Nicaragua.
The prosecutors are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nate Burris, Michelle Arra, and Nicole Cate for the District of Vermont.
This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Vermont comprises agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Diplomatic Security Service, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and state and local partner agencies, with prosecutions being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
BURLINGTON, Vermont — U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont
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