Great Neck man guilty of money laundering in robo call scam: Feds

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Great Neck man guilty of money laundering in robo call scam: Feds
Great Neck resident Jon Kahen pleaded guilty to money laundering relating to his role of foreign-based fraudulent robocalls. (Diagram courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice)

A Great Neck man pleaded guilty to four counts of money laundering for his role as the owner of a telecommunications company that facilitated and profited from fraudulent robocalls Friday, the Department of Justice said.

Under a plea agreement, Jon Kahen will pay nearly $400,000 in criminal forfeiture and restitution to victims as a result of the robocalls conducted throughout his Great Neck-based company, Global Voicecom, Inc., officials said. A complaint filed in January 2020 in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn was part of an action against robocalls that also focused on two individuals from Arizona and their telecommunication companies. 

The complaint said that domestic telecommunication companies were used as “gateway carriers” to allow foreign robocalls to infiltrate the domestic telephone system. The department said the companies ignored repeated red flags and warnings about the fraudulent activity of the calls they carried.

“Mr. Kahen knowingly facilitated the robocalls of government imposters that not only defrauded U.S. consumers but preyed on their trust in the government,” Gail S. Ennis, inspector general for the Social Security Administration, said.

The Justice Department said many of the robocalls originate and are conducted in foreign countries such as India. According to the complaint, the companies associated with Kahen used voice-over-internet protocol, or VoIP carriers, which allow users to place phone calls over a broadband internet connection.

These foreign robocalls impersonate government investigators, make false claims and leave alarming messages for Americans. The messages can range from threats of deportation, fraudulent credit card activity or other false claims that can result in the victim paying large sums of money, according to the department.

According to the complaint, Kahen and the companies “used the U.S. telephone system to engage in predatory wire fraud schemes that victimize individuals throughout the United States, including individuals within the Eastern District of New York and significant numbers of elderly and vulnerable victims.”

Kahen, in the agreement, admitted that he became aware that an Indian client was using the company’s services to commit fraud in 2018 and that funds paid to the company from the client were proceeds from fraudulent activity a year later.

He also admitted that the company continued to provide telecommunications services to the client by being a gateway carrier so that toll-free telephone numbers appeared to be based in the United States, the Justice Department said. Officials said thousands of Americans were defrauded as a result of the fraudulent robocalls.

“This defendant opened the door to foreign fraudsters who exploited the good name of our government agencies to target Americans,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California said in a statement.  “Let this case be a message to players in the United States who have been facilitating foreign actors and profiting from the fraud that they will be held accountable.” 

Since the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act was signed into law in 2017, the Department of Justice has participated in hundreds of enforcement actions that targeted senior citizens.

In March 2019, the department announced charges against more than 260 defendants in a nationwide elder fraud sweep.

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