A Southern California man was sentenced Friday in downtown Los Angeles to seven years and six months behind bars for running a $10 million financial fraud scheme that targeted the elderly.
Sylas Verdzekov, 39, of Chino Hills, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. to pay $10.5 million in restitution to victims of the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Verdzekov pleaded guilty last year to one federal count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors said that from at least November 2021 and continuing until February 2025, Verdzekov and others created fake identification documents of fictitious people, including passports and driver’s licenses. Using the fake documents, the defendant and associates invented at least 36 shell companies in California, which conducted no legitimate business and were created solely to advance their crimes, federal prosecutors said.
Verdzekov and co-defendants opened at least 145 bank accounts and at least 32 private mailboxes across Southern California using the fake identities and sham businesses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In one scheme specifically targeting the elderly using phone calls and email pop-ups, the defendants posed as law enforcement personnel or employees with well-known companies attempting to help the victims maintain the security of their accounts, papers filed in Los Angeles federal court stated.
They then fabricated claims of victim bank accounts or payment accounts being compromised and needing to be resolved quickly. Victims were told they needed to move money from their “corrupted” accounts quickly to ensure they kept all their money, and to move it into accounts that Verdzekov and others fraudulently opened and controlled, prosecutors said.
In a similar scam, according to the indictment, the defendants posed as a real estate owner selling property. Using fake identification and credentials, the defendants deceived victims into believing they were entering into a legitimate sale of the property and tricked the victims into wiring money or mailing a check to an account or mailbox the conspirators controlled.
According to federal prosecutors, Verdzekov and his accomplices laundered at least $10 million in funds taken from at least 100 victims.