Montreal Man Pleads Guilty in U.S. Court in Grandparent Scam Case After Fleeing to Central America

A Montreal man accused of defrauding American seniors as part of a large grandparent scam network has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court. Jimmy Ylimaki had initially entered a not guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud.

He changed his plea at a hearing on Oct. 19. Ylimaki will be sentenced in January and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Ylimaki was apprehended in Nicaragua earlier this year after spending about a year as a fugitive. Thirty-one other defendants are accused alongside him. They are being charged in the U.S. but remain in Canada, where they are contesting extradition.

Prosecutors allege the scheme brought in tens of millions of dollars. The alleged leader, Gareth West, appeared to run a real estate investment business that bought and sold property across Ontario and Quebec, while also presenting himself as an influencer and amateur bodybuilder. Co-conspirators, including Ylimaki, allegedly phoned elderly victims from call centres West ran around the Montreal area.

According to U.S. assistant district attorney Nathanael Burris, Ylimaki was caught "red-handed" during one of several police raids on alleged call centres in the Montreal area in June 2024. He had been calling U.S. seniors moments before officers arrived, and police found him hiding in a downstairs shower in a building owned by West. The raid did not immediately lead to charges, and Ylimaki left for Costa Rica soon afterward.

In March 2025, police arrested two dozen people in the Montreal area on fraud-related charges, but West and Ylimaki avoided capture. West was arrested at an Airbnb in Saint-Colomban, Que., in July 2025, leaving Ylimaki as the only member of the alleged group still at large. In the summer of 2025, a source with knowledge of his movements told CBC he was living in a coastal city in Costa Rica, and U.S. authorities were also tracking him.

A motion for detention filed in March 2026 says Ylimaki, fearing arrest and transfer to the U.S., researched extradition proceedings involving Costa Rica. He learned that the country cooperated with the U.S. on extradition, while neighbouring Nicaragua had historically refused American requests. He then crossed the border, according to Burris's filing.

The move did not protect him. In March 2026, U.S. authorities said they had "apprehended" him in Nicaragua and "removed" him to the U.S. Details of that operation remain unclear.

U.S. prosecutors have described Ylimaki as a "closer," someone who posed as an attorney representing victims' family members. He convinced victims they had to hand over large sums of cash, from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, to bail a relative out of jail. Over just a 67-week period within the alleged three-year conspiracy, he was paid more than $367,000 US.

Burris also wrote in his March 2026 filing that conspiracy members, including Ylimaki, frequently transacted in cryptocurrency, making it difficult to determine the true extent of his resources.