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 elderly Americans as part of a multimillion-dollar grandparent scam network.
In 1989, Crossley struck swimmer Victor Davis outside of a bar in a suburb of Montreal. He was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident and spent time in jail. In 2019, he was also convicted of manslaughter for his involvement in a bar altercation that led to the death of a 70-year-old man.
Now, prosecutors in Vermont have unsealed an indictment against him, and six other people, who they say participated in a grandparent scam network allegedly headed by Gareth West, who presented himself as a luxury real estate developer.
The new indictment expands the scope of the alleged scam, which is said to have defrauded elderly victims out of tens of millions of dollars.
Dozens of people are already alleged to have participated in the scheme — from scammers known as “openers” and “closers” working the phones at call centres in Montreal, to “bail bondsmen” in the U.S. picking up money from victims, to a recently convicted man based out of Panama who helped co-ordinate everything — all, allegedly, under the supervision of West.
Crossley and the six other people who were formally charged last week have been arrested. The U.S. government is asking that they be extradited to Vermont to face charges alongside the other 25 Canadians who have already been charged.
Crossley allegedly went by the codename “Buju” as part of the scheme and worked as a “closer” — a scammer whose job is to pretend to be a police officer or lawyer to convince a victim to provide money once an “opener” has already convinced them that their loved one is in legal trouble.
The scam allegedly targeted thousands of victims across the U.S. over the course of three years. Victims have told CBC that the scam robbed them of vital savings and left them feeling vulnerable and shameful.
In 1992, Crossley was given a 10-month sentence in connection with the death of Davis, a star swimmer with the Canadian Olympic team.
Davis, a native of Guelph, Ont., who trained in Montreal, won a gold medal and two silvers at the 1984 Olympics and set multiple world records during his swimming career.
On Nov. 11, 1989, while outside of a bar in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., Crossley struck the 25-year-old Davis with his car and fled the scene. Davis died two days later.
Court testimony revealed that Davis and Crossley had exchanged words at a bar earlier in the night.
Crossley said he didn’t even realize he had struck someone with his car, but the judge in the case found his testimony “unbelievable.”
He was sentenced to 10 months in jail for leaving the scene of an accident.
In 2019, Crossley pleaded guilty to manslaughter after he pushed Albert Arsenault, a 70-year-old man, causing him to fall down the stairs at a Montreal bar in 2016. The man had been acting aggressively, according to witnesses. Crossley left the scene before emergency services arrived.
Under cross-examination in the Arsenault case, Crossley refused to acknowledge responsibility for Davis’s death. Asked what he had learned from the experience, he said: “Don’t trust the media.”
He was sentenced to 15 months in jail in the Arsenault case.
The men charged alongside Crossley are:
Evangelos Lohaitis, a.k.a. “Bucky,” (36 – Saint-Eustache, Que.)
Mitchell Burnett-Guarna, a.k.a. “Juice,” (39 – Dorval, Que.)
Kyle Lesser, a.k.a. “Brock,” (34 – Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Que.)
Luca Santalucia, a.k.a. “Rocco,” (27 – Montreal)
Cody Jodouin-King, a.k.a. “Lids,” (28 – Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que.)
Panagiota Fountotos, a.k.a. “Nike,” (29 – Laval, Que.)
The other co-defendants, including West, are in the process of fighting their extradition to the U.S.
One defendant, Jimmy Ylimaki, was arrested in Nicaragua after more than a year on the run. He is currently detained in Vermont.
Last week, Stefano Zanetti, a Montrealer who had been living in Panama, was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison in the U.S. for his role in the scam.
