Two Brooklyn men, Yveler Marcellus and Felix Marcial, were sentenced after convictions in a transnational telemarketing scheme that targeted primarily elderly victims. Prosecutors said the operation laundered and funneled more than $12 million in illicit proceeds with overseas co-conspirators.

Federal courts sentenced Yveler Marcellus and Felix Marcial following their convictions in a conspiratorial telemarketing and elder-fraud scheme that prosecutors say swindled largely elderly victims and laundered over $12 million in proceeds. The scheme used telephone-based solicitations and social-engineering tactics to induce victims to transfer funds, often through intermediaries or prepaid instruments, with coordination from collaborators abroad who helped convert and move stolen funds. Evidence presented at trial detailed call-centre style operations and methods to obscure money trails, including layering through domestic and international channels. Sentencing reflected the impact on vulnerable victims and the cross-border nature of the enterprise. Federal prosecutors emphasized that the case illustrates ongoing efforts to target transnational fraud rings that prey on seniors and to dismantle their financial networks. The rulings included prison terms and forfeiture orders intended to remove gains from the conspirators and deliver a measure of accountability for large-scale, coordinated telemarketing fraud.