Canadian border crimes: Multi-million grandparent, crypto scam; human smuggling

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

Northern border crimes continue to be prosecuted against Canadian citizens for a range of multi-million-dollar scams targeting Americans nationwide.

The U.S. investigations are being led by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Homeland Security Investigations, and multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies also working with Canadian authorities.

In the Southern District of Florida, a Canadian who overstayed his visa and was illegally living in Miami was indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges in a $13 million cryptocurrency fraud scheme. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

In this case, Canadian Trenton Richard David Johnston is accused of impersonating cryptocurrency-related company support personnel to gain access to victims’ digital accounts and cryptocurrency wallets. He then allegedly stole roughly $13 million, spending at least $1 million “to lease luxury vehicles, purchase high-end jewelry, and finance an extravagant nightlife and entertainment lifestyle,” according to the charges. An investigation is ongoing; victims continue to be identified.

In a “Grandparent Scam,” nearly 50 Canadian nationals, including Russian, Muslim and Indian men, have been charged in the District of Vermont. In this case, elderly Americans were targeted in more than 40 states to be defrauded. The first 25 Canadians were indicted last year.

All but two, who remain at large, were arrested in Canada in response to a request from the U.S. Department of Justice. All alleged perpetrators live in Québec except for the alleged ringleader, who’s from Ontario and remains at large, according to the charges.

Another nine were separately charged. Their residencies are listed in Florida, New York, Montreal, Canada, California and Guangzhou, China, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont said.

Seven additional Canadians were charged and arrested this month. Several are fighting extradition to the U.S.

The scam allegedly occurred between 2021 and 2024 through a Montreal, Québec-based call center. It involved Canadians contacting elderly Americans in Vermont and 40 other states claiming they were their relatives, usually their grandchildren, saying they’d been arrested and needed bail money. Some claimed to be their relative’s attorney stating they needed bail money and directed them not to say anything because a gag order was in place.

The elderly victims were convinced to give money to an individual posing as a bail bondsman who came to their home. Instead, they were extorted millions of dollars, investigators found. The money was wired to Canada, sometimes through cryptocurrency, in order to obscure the source and identity of the perpetrators, according to the charges.

The transnational criminal enterprise’s sole intent was “defrauding hundreds of retirees of their life savings by preying on their emotions and deceiving them into thinking that their loved ones were in peril,” Thomas Demeo, IRS-CI Boston Field Office Acting Special Agent in Charge said in a statement. If convicted, each Canadian faces up to 20 years in U.S. federal prison.

In an ongoing human smuggling case in upstate New York, the latest of three Canadian-American-Indiana human smugglers pleaded guilty this week. An American citizen pleaded guilty last year. Two Canadians have been extradited to the U.S. and are awaiting trial.

They’re being charged in connection to the smuggling of illegal foreign nationals, primarily Romanians and Indians, across the U.S.-Canada border through the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Territory. The AMIR, a major smuggling hub, includes part of Ontario, Canada, two counties in upstate New York and islands on the St. Lawrence River, The Center Square reported.

During the Biden administration, a record number of illegal border crossers were reported coming from Canada primarily into Vermont and upstate New York, The Center Square reported. With limited resources to combat smuggling, First Nation chiefs, including from the AMIR, traveled to Texas to learn of ways to combat border crime, The Center Square exclusively reported.

Canadian-American AMIR member Timothy Oakes pleaded guilty to four counts of human smuggling and four counts of smuggling causing death. In this case, an entire Romanian family and Oakes’ brother drowned after a boat capsized when crossing the river during inclement weather.

According to the charges, Oakes used his home on Cornwall Island, Ontario, as a staging area prior to smuggling foreign nationals across the river by boat, earning $1,000 per person. Others involved in the scheme allegedly transported foreign nationals from mainland Cornwall to Cornwall Island in Canada, staged them on the riverbank, transported them by boat and by car once in the U.S., according to the charges.

His sentencing is scheduled for September. He faces between five years and life in prison.