A Canadian national indicted by a federal grand jury last summer for allegedly defrauding multiple elderly people across Central Illinois has been sentenced to over 4 years in federal prison.
37-year old Sebastian Chelemen pleaded guilty to wire fraud back on February 21st in Springfield federal court. According to a federal complaint filed in June of last year, the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office received a phone call from an elderly rural Springfield couple who believed they had been scammed out of several thousands of dollars. The couple told police they had received a phone call from someone claiming to be their grandson who told them they had been in a car crash and had been arrested by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office. The supposed family member told the victims they needed $14,000 to be bailed out of jail. Follow-up phone calls were made by multiple individuals in relation to the alleged car crash, including one person saying they were the grandson’s attorney. A subject came to the victims’ residence acting as a courier to pick up the money from the couple and then drove off eastbound on Old Jacksonville Road into Springfield. While detectives were interviewing the elderly couple about the incident a short time later, the couple’s real grandson arrived to the residence and said he had not been in a car crash, nor did he know the other individuals who had called the residence. The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office was then able to retrieve information from surveillance footage of the couple’s home from security cameras as well as flock cameras in the area to locate the suspect’s vehicle and to gain a description of the individual who had picked up the money, later identified as Chelemen.
Chelemen was arrested by Sangamon County authorities on the afternoon of June 14, 2023 at the Red Roof Inn in the 3200 block of Singer Avenue in Springfield. Chelemen’s cell phone was seized along with over $138,000 in currency that he had allegedly taken via a scheme concocted over the social media applications Telegram and Wickr, coordinating with a second party in Canada.
Detectives with the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI discovered that victims between the ages of 75-88 years of age had been taken advantage of the in scheme in Springfield, Jacksonville, Riverton, Christian County, and Fulton County. The criminal complaint says that the investigation into this scheme remains open and ongoing. So far, no further charges have been filed in the case. The criminal complaint was sealed by order of the court yesterday in order to further protect the victims’ identities in the case.
Yesterday, Federal Judge Sue Myerscough sentenced Chelemen to 50 months in federal prison, 2 years of mandatory supervised release, and ordered restitution in the amount of over $460,000 and a special assessment of $100 to the court be paid.