Farmingdale Man Sentenced In Nationwide Advance Fee Loan Scheme

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — A Farmingdale man was sentenced to prison for operating an advance fee loan scheme that targeted small business owners and affected at least 42 people across the United States, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini announced Wednesday.

Demetrios Boudourakis, also known as "Jimmy," 46, was ordered to pay more than $760,000 in restitution to victims in addition to existing restitution payments of $120,000, for a total of roughly $880,000.

Boudourakis pleaded guilty June 12 to second-degree grand larceny. He was sentenced Friday to five to 10 years in prison.

"This was a criminal enterprise that preyed upon small business owners from across the country, from as far away as Washington, Colorado and Texas to right here in Suffolk County," Sini said. "This was a complex, far-reaching scheme, but thanks to our prosecutors and investigators, justice has been served for the victims in this case."

An investigation into Boudourakis and his associates was launched in 2018 and included the use of court-authorized eavesdropping, as well as audits of financial records and physical and electronic surveillance. Boudourakis and his co-conspirators ran an advance fee loan fraud scheme from as early as October 2016 in which they offered loans to their targets in exchange for fees, Sini said. They then collected the fees without providing the loans. Once Boudourakis and his employees had received the advance fees, they would cease contact with the victims.

The scheme generated more than $2 million in stolen proceeds, Sini said.

The conspiracy targeted small businesses, typically reaching victims through cold calling and then using high-pressure sales tactics to sell them the fraudulent loans.

From 2016 through early 2018, Boudourakis operated the scheme out of a boiler room located on Broadhollow Road in Melville. In May 2018, Boudourakis vacated that location and re-established his illicit operation at a storefront on Merrick Road in Seaford under the name "Federal Business Lenders."

He also operated the scheme through shell companies and under other business names, including Federal Business Funding, JTT Funding, JTT Global Holdings, Inc., Acceleration Capital Group, Blackrock Funders, Inc., and Blackrock, Inc.

Boudourakis was arrested on June 11, 2019.