Buckeye Reporter

A federal grand jury has indicted two men on charges of defrauding elderly residents in Northeast Ohio. The accused, Jinrong Shi from New York and Jiyang Zhong, a Chinese national residing in Little Neck, New York, allegedly operated scams that targeted senior citizens with "grandparent" and "tech support" frauds during May and June 2024.

In tech support scams, victims are misled into believing their electronic devices or online accounts have been compromised, prompting them to pay for non-existent assistance. Grandparent scams involve impersonators convincing elderly individuals that their grandchildren are in legal trouble, requiring immediate financial aid.

The indictment claims Shi and Zhong worked with accomplices to collect cash withdrawn by the victims. They used "fraud callers" to gather personal information from the victims and "fraud couriers" to retrieve cash or valuables from them. Victims were sometimes given passwords for supposed verification purposes. In other cases, they were instructed to mail cash to locations controlled by the conspirators. The total amount defrauded exceeded $201,000.

The illicit proceeds were allegedly laundered across state lines using various methods, including routing through cryptocurrency accounts based in China.

Shi faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and concealment of money laundering with a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Zhong is charged with similar offenses except for concealment of money laundering and also faces up to 20 years if convicted.

Sentences will be determined by the Court after considering factors unique to each case. An indictment is not evidence of guilt; defendants are entitled to a fair trial where the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The FBI Cleveland Division conducted the investigation leading to this indictment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian M. McDonough is prosecuting the case for the Northern District of Ohio. The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and Cleveland Heights Police Department cooperated in this matter.

This prosecution aligns with efforts under the Elder Justice Initiative Program from the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act of 2017 (EAPPA), aimed at combating elder abuse and financial fraud targeting seniors.

For more information on elder abuse awareness or reporting suspected financial exploitation of seniors, visit tips.fbi.gov/home or justice.gov/elderjustice/financial-exploitation.