A 60-year-old former Illinois resident was sentenced in Tucson on Tuesday to 96 months in prison for his role in laundering millions of dollars stolen from elderly victims across the country. Ahmed Maqbul Syed, a citizen of India, must also pay approximately $2.4 million in restitution after admitting he helped move proceeds from tech-support and government-impersonation scams that preyed on older Americans, including victims in Arizona.
U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker handed down the sentence, according to a statement from the District of Arizona. Syed had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, and federal prosecutors say he participated in a scheme to launder proceeds from fraud schemes that targeted elderly victims nationwide, as first reported by KVOA.
How the Scam Reeled In Victims
The scheme followed a familiar pattern for elder-fraud operations: it began with deceptive computer pop-up messages warning victims their devices had problems or freezing their screens outright, per the station's report. Victims who called the phone numbers listed in those pop-ups were falsely told their accounts had been hacked, and scammers used that fear to push targets into handing over cash, gold, gift cards and cryptocurrency.
Scammers instructed victims to withdraw or transfer money supposedly to protect their assets, directing them to purchase gold, withdraw cash, buy gift cards and deposit funds into bitcoin ATMs, the same account notes. Some victims lost most of their life savings to the scam, according to the outlet's reporting.
A Grand Jury Indictment Two Years in the Making
The case traces back to Dec. 11, 2024, when a federal grand jury in Tucson returned an elder-fraud indictment against Syed and co-defendant Rupesh Chandra Chintakindi, both citizens of India, on the same conspiracy to commit money laundering charge, according to the District of Arizona. The FBI Phoenix Division's Tucson office and the Marana Police Department investigated the case, with assistance from out-of-state law enforcement agencies.
The scam fits a pattern seen in other recent cases moving through Tucson's federal court. In August, Richard Modou Bah, 22, of the Bronx, was sentenced to 58 months in prison in a separate phantom-hacker scheme that also targeted elderly victims, according to the FBI.
Part of a Much Larger National Problem
Syed's sentencing lands amid a sustained federal crackdown on elder fraud. The Justice Department pursued nearly 350 criminal and civil enforcement actions involving elder fraud or abuse between July 2025 and June 2026, according to Fox 10 Phoenix. Those cases involved 712 defendants accused of stealing or attempting to steal approximately $4.84 billion from 711,353 victims, with about 96% of the cases criminal in nature and 45% involving international schemes.
Cryptocurrency has become an increasingly common tool in these schemes nationally. The FBI has reported that scams involving cryptocurrency ensnared more than 42,000 older victims and caused $4.3 billion in losses. The Federal Trade Commission has separately found that older adults are far more likely than younger adults to report losing money to tech-support, prize, romance and government-impersonation scams, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
A similar case now moving through federal courts elsewhere illustrates how far these schemes can reach. Prosecutors allege a separate nationwide fraud scheme operated from April 2025 through June 2026, with suspects posing as bank security officers and government officials to convince victims their accounts were linked to financial crimes, according to WTKR. In that case, victims were allegedly persuaded to withdraw money and convert it into gold or cryptocurrency, with court records alleging losses of about $20,000 in cryptocurrency and roughly $260,000 worth of gold.
The Justice Department has also ramped up public outreach to curb these losses, holding nearly 1,200 public-awareness and training events that reached more than 62 million Americans during the same reporting period, Fox 10 Phoenix reported.
