Man who killed star Olympic swimmer charged in multimillion-dollar grandparent rip-off

U.S. prosecutors have accused Glen Crossley, the 56-year-old Montrealer who killed a Canadian Olympic gold medallist in a hit-and-run, of scamming aged Americans as a part of a multimillion-dollar grandparent rip-off community.

In 1989, Crossley struck swimmer Victor Davis exterior of a bar in a suburb of Montreal. He was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident and frolicked in jail. In 2019, he was additionally convicted of manslaughter for his involvement in a bar altercation that led to the loss of life of a 70-year-old man. 

Now, prosecutors in Vermont have unsealed an indictment towards him, and 6 different folks, who they are saying participated in a grandparent rip-off community allegedly headed by Gareth West, who introduced himself as a luxurious actual property developer. 

The new indictment expands the scope of the alleged rip-off, which is alleged to have defrauded aged victims out of tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. 

Dozens of persons are already alleged to have participated within the scheme — from scammers generally known as “openers” and “closers” working the telephones at name centres in Montreal, to “bail bondsmen” within the U.S. choosing up cash from victims, to a just lately convicted man based mostly out of Panama who helped co-ordinate the whole lot — all, allegedly, below the supervision of West.

Crossley and the six different individuals who had been formally charged final week have been arrested. The U.S. authorities is asking that they be extradited to Vermont to face expenses alongside the opposite 25 Canadians who’ve already been charged. 

Crossley allegedly glided by the codename “Buju” as a part of the scheme and labored as a “closer” — a scammer whose job is to fake to be a police officer or lawyer to persuade a sufferer to offer cash as soon as an “opener” has already satisfied them that their cherished one is in authorized bother. 

The rip-off allegedly focused hundreds of victims throughout the U.S. over the course of three years. Victims have instructed CBC that the rip-off robbed them of significant financial savings and left them feeling susceptible and shameful.

Involved in 2 deaths

In 1992, Crossley was given a 10-month sentence in reference to the loss of life of Davis, a star swimmer with the Canadian Olympic staff.

Davis, a local of Guelph, Ont., who educated in Montreal, gained a gold medal and two silvers on the 1984 Olympics and set a number of world information throughout his swimming profession. 

On Nov. 11, 1989, whereas exterior of a bar in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., Crossley struck the 25-year-old Davis together with his automobile and fled the scene. Davis died two days later.

Court testimony revealed that Davis and Crossley had exchanged phrases at a bar earlier within the night time.

Crossley mentioned he did not even notice he had struck somebody together with his automobile, however the decide within the case discovered his testimony “unbelievable.”

He was sentenced to 10 months in jail for leaving the scene of an accident. 

In 2019, Crossley pleaded responsible to manslaughter after he pushed Albert Arsenault, a 70-year-old man, inflicting him to fall down the steps at a Montreal bar in 2016. The man had been performing aggressively, in keeping with witnesses. Crossley left the scene earlier than emergency companies arrived. 

Under cross-examination within the Arsenault case, Crossley refused to acknowledge duty for Davis’s loss of life. Asked what he had discovered from the expertise, he mentioned: “Don’t trust the media.”

He was sentenced to fifteen months in jail within the Arsenault case.

The males charged alongside Crossley are: 

Evangelos Lohaitis, a.ok.a. “Bucky,” (36 – Saint-Eustache, Que.)
Mitchell Burnett-Guarna, a.ok.a. “Juice,” (39 – Dorval, Que.)
Kyle Lesser, a.ok.a. “Brock,” (34 – Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Que.)
Luca Santalucia, a.ok.a. “Rocco,” (27 – Montreal)
Cody Jodouin-King, a.ok.a. “Lids,” (28 – Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que.)
Panagiota Fountotos, a.ok.a. “Nike,” (29 – Laval, Que.)

The different co-defendants, together with West, are within the strategy of preventing their extradition to the U.S.

One defendant, Jimmy Ylimaki, was arrested in Nicaragua after greater than a 12 months on the run. He is at present detained in Vermont.

Last week, Stefano Zanetti, a Montrealer who had been residing in Panama, was sentenced to fifteen and a half years in jail within the U.S. for his function within the rip-off.