Update: Marketer Sentenced to Over Three Years

Update to a January 31, 2023, story: McElwee was sentenced to 41 months in prison. Click here to read more.

Charles William McElwee pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to buy and sell more than 2.6 million Medicare beneficiary identification numbers, along with other personal identifiers. As part of his plea, McElwee admitted that he and his co-conspirators used “data mining” and “social engineering techniques” to collect Medicare beneficiary information, which McElwee then advertised and sold online. According to the charges, some of the illicit transactions involved foreign actors.  Read a story from the Miami Herald and a Department of Justice press release.

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