Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Jimmy Ylimaki, a Montreal man accused of defrauding American seniors as part of an elaborate grandparent scam network, has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court.
Ylimaki, who was apprehended in Nicaragua earlier this year after spending a year as a fugitive, initially pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud.
He changed his plea at a hearing on Oct. 19. He will be sentenced in January and faces up to 20 years in prison.
There are currently 31 other defendants accused alongside Ylimaki. They are being charged in the U.S., but remain in Canada, contesting extradition.
Prosecutors allege that scheme netted tens of millions of dollars. The alleged leader of the scam, Gareth West, appeared to run a real estate investment business, buying and selling property across Ontario and Quebec — while also posing as an influencer and amateur bodybuilder.
Read more here
Meanwhile, co-conspirators, including Ylimaki, allegedly placed calls to elderly victims at call centres run by West, located around the Montreal area.
On the run in Central America
Ylimaki was caught “red-handed” in one of several raids police conducted against alleged call centres in the Montreal area in June 2024, according to U.S. assistant district attorney Nathanael Burris.
He was placing calls to U.S. seniors in the moments before police arrived. They found him hiding in a downstairs shower, at a building owned by West.
Shortly after the raid, which didn’t immediately lead to charges, Ylimaki left for Costa Rica.
Then, in March 2025, police arrested two dozen people in the Montreal area and charged them with fraud-related offences, but West and Ylimaki evaded arrest.
Months later, West was arrested at an Airbnb in Saint-Colomban, Que., in July 2025.
Ylimaki was the only member of the alleged group of scammers who was still at large.
If you know anyone involved in this case, please contact Matthew Lapierre at [email protected].
In the summer of 2025, a source with knowledge of Ylimaki’s movements told CBC he was living in a coastal city in Costa Rica.
U.S. authorities were also tracking him.
In a motion for detention, filed in March 2026, Burris says Ylimaki — fearing he would be arrested and brought to the U.S. — began researching extradition proceedings involving Costa Rica and learned that the country collaborated with the U.S. on extradition matters. But neighbouring Nicaragua had historically refused U.S. extradition requests.
Jimmy Ylimaki had been on the run for more than a year before he was tracked down and arrested in Nicaragua. He was wanted in connection with a multimillion-dollar grandparent scam targeting American seniors.
So, he crossed the border, according to Burris’s filing.
It did not protect him. In March 2026, U.S. authorities said they had “apprehended” him in Nicaragua and “removed” him to the U.S. The details of that operation remain murky.
Ylimaki was a ‘closer’
U.S. prosecutors have said Ylimaki participated in the scam as a “closer” — someone who posed as an attorney representing victims’ family members.
He convinced victims that they needed to provide a large sum of cash, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, to bail their family member out of jail.
In his role, over just a 67-week period within the alleged three-year conspiracy, Ylimaki was paid more than $367,000 US.
“Moreover, members of the conspiracy in which Jimmy participated frequently transacted in cryptocurrency, making it difficult to ascertain the true extent of Jimmy’s resources,” Burris wrote in his March 2026 filing.
