A 79-Year-Old Moved $3.5 Million for Tech Support Scammers. Now He Owes $1 Million Back.

Usually in these stories, the senior is the victim. This time the guy who got sentenced is 79.

So what happened?

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida, part of the Department of Justice (DOJ), John Kuhlmann, 79, a resident of Daytona Beach, Florida, was sentenced in December 2025 to pay $1,005,313 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release. He was sentenced for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business tied to a nationwide computer tech support fraud scheme that defrauded more than 300 elderly victims.

According to court documents described by prosecutors:

• Beginning in November 2018, he formed two Florida corporations, "Seminole Services, Inc." and "QB Accounting Services," which supposedly provided computer tech services.
• Neither was registered as a money transmitting business, as the law requires.
• The companies took in money from elderly victims and wired the money to co-conspirators in foreign countries.
• Those co-conspirators claimed victims' computers were infected, hacked or otherwise at risk, and convinced some to pay as much as $150,000 for "computer repair."
• In total, he moved about $3.5 million in victim funds through his business accounts.

Read that again. As much as $150,000. For computer repair.

The U.S. Secret Service (USSS), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Leon County Sheriff's Office investigated.

Here's the thing ... the money guy is part of the scam

The scammers overseas need someone here with a bank account and a normal-sounding business name. "QB Accounting Services." Sounds fine, right?

That person is the bridge between the scammers and the victims. And prosecutors are going after the bridge.

Why should you care?

If you work in payments, banking or merchant services, this is your red flag. A "tech services" company taking in big checks and wires from seniors, then sending the money overseas? That's not a business. That's a pipeline.

And if you sell inbound calls for tech support? Know exactly who's on the other end of the line.

What to do this week

• Watch the money pattern: consumer payments in, foreign wires out, no real service.
• Real tech support doesn't cost $150,000. Ever.
• Talk to the seniors in your life about pop-ups and "your computer is infected" calls.
• Report it. The National Elder Fraud Hotline is 1-833-FRAUD-11.

It's not rocket science. Follow the money, and you find the scam.