Yisroel R.

A Brooklyn man has been sentenced to up to four and a half years in prison for his role in an elaborate government impersonation scam targeting a 22-year-old Williamsburg woman, who was falsely told she faced arrest and pressured into handing over thousands of dollars before Shomrim and the NYPD intervened.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Wednesday that Weiwei Xu, 39, of Sunset Park, was sentenced to one and a half to four and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree grand larceny on August 11.

The incident began in July 2025, when the victim received a phone call from a woman posing as a U.S. Marshal, who claimed there was an outstanding warrant for her arrest on money laundering charges. The caller kept her on the phone for more than four hours, convincing her that she needed to pay money to clear the supposed warrant. After her bank blocked a suspicious $13,000 transaction, the scammers instructed her to return home, where two unidentified men arrived and collected the cash using a prearranged passcode.

Over the following days, the scammers continued contacting the victim, demanding an additional $5,200. The woman contacted Shomrim and called 911, alerting authorities to the scheme. Despite an NYPD officer warning the caller to stop contacting her, the scammers arranged another pickup, claiming an undercover detective would collect the remaining money.

On July 22, NYPD 79th precinct and Shomrim conducted a sting operation and arranged for the suspect to appear at the victim’s home. The suspect arrived in a black Cadillac, identified himself as “Jack,” provided the agreed-upon passcode, and collected the remaining $5,200. Shortly afterward, Shomrim and police surrounded the car, apprehended the driver, recovered the money from the vehicle, and placed him under arrest.

A subsequent investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office identified 12 telephone numbers connected to the operation, with the scammers using internet-based phone services linked to several countries in Asia.

District Attorney Gonzalez warned residents to remain alert to similar schemes, emphasizing that scammers frequently use threats of arrest to frighten victims into handing over money and urging anyone targeted to report such incidents immediately to authorities.