U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced that Mohamed Khaled Sakr, 31, of Montreal, Quebec, received a 36-month prison sentence for his involvement in a wire fraud scheme that scammed more than $260,000 from elderly victims. U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo also ordered him to pay $262,500 in restitution to 18 individuals.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, between May 8 and May 13, 2023, Sakr and his co-conspirators launched a phone scam targeting elderly people. The callers posed as family members or legal representatives, falsely claiming that a relative had been arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI) following a crash and urgently needed bail money.
Sakr served as a “money mule” in the scheme. He and others traveled across the Western District of New York and beyond, collecting cash directly from victims. The group collected around $262,500, which they forwarded to other unidentified co-conspirators in the New York City area. Authorities stopped the group just before they could obtain an additional $9,500.
The investigation involved Homeland Security Investigations, the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police, and the Monroe Crime Analysis Center.
