On September 12, 2025, a Brooklyn, New York grand jury convicted 32-year-old Yveler Mercellus for serving as a money mule in a technical support scam operation, where:
- Indian co-conspirators would call their primarily-elderly victims to trick them into thinking their bank accounts were compromised in order to gain remote access to their victims’ computers and log into their victims bank accounts.
- The victims would be asked to withdraw money from their bank accounts and “safekeep them” by handing them off to the Indian co-conspirators through wire transfers or through the use of designated couriers, or money mules.
- The money mules are also used in a mortgage refinancing scam, where the victims are deceived into sending money in order to “refinance their mortgage at a beneficial interest rate.”
Marcellus was convicted on the conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and the conspiracy to commit money laundering, which when combined means he faces up to 40 years in prison alongside the following co-conspirators who have since pled guilty:
- Daniel G. Vernon, a 29-year-old from Queens, NY
- Felix Marcial, a 32-year-old from Brooklyn, NY
- Tatiana Williams, a 28-year-old from Miramar, Florida
- Asheem Henry, a 34-year-old from New York City
- Rahmel Thompson, a 26-year-old from Queens, NY
- George Mims, a 38-year-old from New York City
- Daquan Mitchell, a 34-year-old from New York City