A West Los Angeles man is expected to be sentenced Thursday for helping launder more than $378,000 obtained from victims of “grandparent” scams who were defrauded with bogus claims that their relatives were in distress and in urgent need of funds.
James Wesley Jackson III, 44, pleaded guilty in September 2025 in Los Angeles federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
A two-count indictment also charges Christopher Fagon, 47, who at the time of the scheme lived in the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles, and is now believed to reside in or near Toronto, Canada.
Perpetrators of grandparent scams convince victims to send money — purportedly to help relatives, often their grandchildren, who are typically described as being in legal trouble — to bank accounts, business entities and physical addresses specified by the scammers for the supposed purpose of assisting the relatives.
The victims’ money often is initially handled by “money mules,” who allow their addresses or bank accounts to be used or agree to receive or negotiate cashier’s checks. Prosecutors said Fagon was a manager of money mules such as Jackson, who also recruited his own money mules.
Jackson’s plea agreement states that once money was in accounts associated with the money mules or identity theft victims, he engaged in transactions designed to conceal the true nature of the funds, which had been obtained via wire fraud.
The indictment says the scheme laundered funds obtained from victims of grandparent scams who live in California and as far away as Pennsylvania.
The charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering carries a possible penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors noted.