A federal jury convicted Barry Glenn Augustinsky, 55, of Poquoson on July 21 on charges including mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, money laundering, unlawful monetary transactions, and obtaining information under false pretenses.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Augustinsky owned several telecommunications companies that provided voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephone services. From 2018 through at least 2023, he and the Chief Executive Officer of One Ten Communications—a call center based in Karachi, Pakistan—conspired to use his VoIP services to make millions of calls targeting people in the United States.
During these calls, representatives from OneTen made false claims such as promising victims their credit card debt would be reduced or eliminated if they sent payments to companies controlled by Augustinsky. The callers also falsely claimed affiliation with legitimate debt relief companies despite having no connection with them. Victims across the country sent hundreds of personal checks to post office boxes in Portsmouth and Poquoson; Augustinsky collected and deposited these checks.
Augustinsky retained 30 percent of each check’s proceeds for himself and took an additional cut as payment for OneTen’s use of his VoIP service. He periodically wired funds back to OneTen in Pakistan. Evidence showed that Augustinsky was aware OneTen representatives were making false statements during spoofed caller ID calls and knew many recipients were elderly individuals. He also made false statements to a credit report company about needing reports for “construction loan funding,” which enabled his overseas co-conspirator unauthorized access to more than three hundred credit reports.
Augustinsky faces up to 20 years in prison when sentenced on November 5. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Washington Division, the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, and IRS Criminal Investigation Washington D.C. Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anthony C. Mozzi and Kristen S. Taylor are prosecuting.