A director of a Buffalo, N.Y. collection agency has been sentenced to two years probation and fined $28,000 after he admitted selling personal information to fraudulent debt collectors.
Andrew Jon Pytlewski, 35, sold the data in 2009 for approximately $28,000 to Timothy E. Arent and Neil G. Wieczkowski. Pytlewski was sentenced by Chief U. S. District Judge William J. Skretny.
Assistant U. S. Attorney MaryEllen Kresse, who handled the case, said Pytlewski stole information that actually belonged to the financial institutions that had hired his agency to collect the debts.
Wieczkowski previously was convicted of using the information to scare victims into paying debts they did not owe.
Assistant U.S. Attorney MaryEllen Kresse said Wieczkowski and Arent deposited approximately $6.8 million in checks written by more than 1,000 victims for payment of fictitious debt.
Wieczkowski had admitted that he and Arent paid employees at another Buffalo collection firm thousands of dollars to steal lists of debtor names and contact information from their employer.
Wieczkowski faces a prison term of at least five years and three months. Sentencing is scheduled for April 26.
Arent sometimes pretended to be an attorney when he called debtors. Information about where his case stands was not immediately available.
