2 Las Vegas men get prison in phone fraud scheme, posing as grandchildren who needed cash

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Two Las Vegas men have been sentenced to prison about three months after they were convicted for posing as distressed grandchildren in phone calls to get money from 16 victims.

In a Pittsburgh courtroom on Friday, U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan sentenced Roderick Feurtado, 57, to 10 years in prison and Tarek Bouanane, 47, to three years and 10 months in prison. Both were ordered to serve three years of supervised release upon completion of their prison time, and they will have to pay more than a quarter-million dollars to their victims.

Feurtado and Bouanane were convicted after a five-day trial in September. They were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Evidence at trial established that they went to the Pittsburgh area in September of 2021 to carry out a scheme to cheat elderly victims out of cash by calling and pretending to be family members — usually grandchildren — who were in trouble.

The judge ordered $258,520 in restitution, but emphasized that the harm caused to the victims was emotional, not just financial. Feurtado’s lack of remorse and his record of “misrepresentations to the Court and the jury” were cited as he was sentenced.

A federal grand jury has indicted three residents of Panama for allegedly masterminding the scheme. Four other men face charges in the case. Stefano Zanetti, Samuel David Ferrer Avila and Cesar Javier Courio Morante have been extradited to Pittsburgh.

The scheme involved using couriers to go to the houses to take cash from the victims, and the cash was to be split up, with some funneled to other co-conspirators. The scheme also involved converting cash to cryptocurrency.

During the investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police seized about $220,000 from the defendants.

U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced the sentences in Pittsburgh.

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