GoKawiilTwo former executives of a call-tracking and analytics company pleaded guilty to concealing a years-long tech support fraud scheme that victimized individuals worldwide.
Former CEO Adam Young (from Miami, Florida) and former CSO Harrison Gevirtz (from Las Vegas, Nevada) admitted to a misprision of a felony charge, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both, and are scheduled for sentencing on June 16.
According to court documents, they operated the C.A. Cloud Attribution, Ltd. business (using the C.A. Cloud tradename) between early 2017 and April 2022, providing telephone numbers, call recordings, call forwarding, and call-tracking services to many customers they knew were also engaged in telemarketing and tech support fraud scams.
The fraudsters behind these schemes placed deceptive pop-up ads on users' computers, falsely claiming the systems were infected with malware, and directing victims to call center agents who asked for hundreds of dollars for fictitious technical services, while impersonating Microsoft and Apple in some cases.
Some scammers also allegedly remotely accessed their victims' computers and, in some instances, stole personal and financial information to withdraw funds without authorization.
While Young and Gevirtz knew some of their customers were involved in fraud schemes, they did not report it to law enforcement authorities. Instead, the prosecutors alleged that the two defendants advised customers to use large pools of rotating telephone numbers to reduce complaints and prevent account terminations.
They also directed their company's sales staff to market services to businesses they knew were engaged in fraud and, on occasion, introduced fraudsters to one another to buy and sell calls.
"What the CEO and CSO of this well-known call tracking and analytics company did was downright despicable," said Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division.
"By their own admission, they willfully profited from telemarketing and tech support scammers, here and abroad, who preyed on the elderly, exploited the vulnerable, and drained victims of their life savings and peace of mind. Behind every fraudulent call was a real person left frightened, humiliated, or financially shattered."
Young and Gevirtz also owned and operated a call center in Tunisia from 2016 through April 2022, where some of their employees engaged in tech support fraud, which involved fraudulently accessing victims' computers via compromised links, posing as an official technical support service, and sending false invoices.
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