A military veteran and an accomplice were charged with running an elaborate phone scam from inside a jail that targeted ailing veterans in healthcare facilities, including some who were in intensive care units. federal prosecutors said.
The pair allegedly targeted more than 60 victims from 30 medical facilities, some run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and attempted 130 fraudulent transactions on victim accounts, obtaining about $8,000 from the scheme, the Department of Justice said.
Between December 2021 and April 2023, Darryl Lamont Young, 46, who was incarcerated for other charges, would use the jail’s phone to call medical facilities and pose as a Department of Veterans Affairs employee to gain access to personal information about ill veterans, according to the Department of Justice. Young was a former service member so he “understood some of the services provided to veterans,” officials said in a release. They did not specify which military branch Young previously belonged to.
His accomplice, Aqeelah Ngiesha Williams, 27, would then allegedly place a three-way call to the medical facilities, patching Young in on the call, to conceal that he was an inmate. According to court documents, Young sometimes spoke directly with the ill veterans in the ICU or with their emergency contacts to convince them that “stimulus payments” could be deposited into their bank accounts. If a victim provided their bank information, Young would steal funds and transfer them to his own accounts, according to court documents.
“The conduct in this case is truly shocking – calling medical facilities and seriously ill veterans under the pretense of being a VA employee trying to provide the ill veteran with financial benefits. In reality, these two were seeking personal and financial information to defraud the veteran,” U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman said in the DOJ press release. “While they did not get a huge amount of money with this scheme, the harm they caused to those already suffering a health crisis, is deserving of federal prosecution.”
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Young and Williams were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six counts of wire fraud for phone calls they allegedly made to various VA medical centers across the U.S., and six counts of aggravated identity theft for possessing or using personal information from the fraud victims.
The pair pleaded “not guilty” in federal court on Friday, according to the DOJ.
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud are each punishable by up to 20 years in prison and aggravated identity theft is punishable by two years. The case is being investigated by the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General and the United States Secret Service.
A jury trial is scheduled for Dec. 9, according to the federal court docket.
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