Scammers stopped?

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Scammers stopped?

Postby Spock » Fri 2009 Apr 10 9:56

Ref: Three Plead Guilty to Bank-Fraud Conspiracy

I just got permission to quote the information in its entirety, so here it is:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

November 20 , 2008


Public Information Office
Phone (703) 842-4050 Fax: (703) 299-2584
Email: usavae.press@usdoj.gov
Web Address: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae

Three Plead Guilty to Bank-Fraud Conspiracy

(Alexandria, VA) - Precious Matthews, age 27, of Miami, pled guilty yesterday and Ezenwa Onyedebelu, age 20, and Brandy Anderson, age 30, both of Dallas, pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office, Jeffrey W. Irvine, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service, Washington Field Office, and David Baker, Chief of Police, Alexandria Police Department, made the announcement after the pleas were accepted by United States District Judge T.S. Ellis, III.

To date, nine individuals have been arrested as part of this investigation. Those individuals include five people who were indicted by a federal grand jury on September 25,2008: Matthews, Onyedebelu, Anderson, Abel Nnabue, age 33, of Dallas, who pled guilty on October 16, 2008, and Paula Gipson, age 33, of Dallas. The Indictment charges these five defendants with conspiring to commit bank fraud. Sentencing has been set for January 30, 2009 for Nnabue, February 13, 2009 for Matthews, and February 20, 2009 for Onyedebelu, and Anderson. Matthews, Onyedebelu, and Nnabue face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a fine of up to $1,000,000, and up to five years of supervised release. Anderson faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.

According to court documents, the defendants and other co-conspirators used fee-based web databases to search for potential victims with large balances in home equity line of credit (HELOC) accounts. This information included name, address, date of birth, and social security number. Once the conspirators identified a victim they used other online databases to obtain information commonly used in security questions, such as the victim’s mother’s maiden name. The conspirators then obtained credit reports on the victims in order to verify personal information and account balances.

Armed with the victim’s personal information, the conspirators called the victim’s financial institution, impersonated the victim, and transferred the majority of the available money from the HELOC account into an account from which a wire transfer could be sent. The conspirators would then wire transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars to overseas accounts controlled by members of the conspiracy. The conspirators used caller-ID spoofing services, prepaid cell phones and PC wireless cards, and transferred victims’ home telephone numbers in order to impersonate the victim and avoid identifying themselves.

Once money arrived in a foreign bank, normally in Asia, a money mule who had opened the account for this purpose withdrew the money in cash. The money mule would keep a portion and hand the rest to a courier outside of the bank. The courier would gather several wire transfers from various money mules and crate the money up and send it to the head of the group in Asia. This person would then send wire transfers to various members of the conspiracy, including a $51million wire transfer sent earlier this year.

This case was investigated by the Alexandria Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and United States Secret Service. Assistant United States Attorney John Eisinger and Trial Attorney Tyler Newby from the Department of Justice are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
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Re: Spammers stopped?

Postby Spock » Sat 2009 Apr 11 12:35

Ref: update on this ongoing prosecution.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

April 9, 2009
Peter Carr
Public Information Officer
Phone (703) 842-4050 Fax: (703) 299-2584
Email: usavae.press@usdoj.gov
Web Address: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae

Jury Finds Miami Man Guilty in $8 Million Bank-Fraud Conspiracy

(Alexandria, Virginia) - A jury convicted Henry “Uche” Obilo, age 29, of Miami, Fl., today of conspiracy to commit bank fraud involving a home equity line of credit fraud scheme that has been linked to $8 million in actual losses.

Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; David Baker, Chief of Police, Alexandria Police Department; Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office; and Jeffrey Irvine, Special Agent-in-Charge of the United States Secret Service’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement.

Obilo faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of approximately $17 million. United States District Judge T.S. Ellis, III presided over the trial. Sentencing is scheduled for July 17, 2009.

Obilo is the seventh individual convicted in this case, and the first to be convicted following a jury trial. The other six, who all pled guilty, include: Abel Nnabue, age 33, of Dallas, who was sentenced to 54 months on Jan. 30, 2009; Precious Matthews, age 27, of Miami, who was sentenced 51 months on Feb. 13, 2009; Ezenwa Onyedebelu, age 20, of Dallas, who was sentenced to 37 months on Feb. 27, 2009; Daniel Orjinta, age 42, of Nigeria, who was sentenced to 42 months on March 6, 2009; Brandy Anderson, age 30, of Dallas, who was sentenced to 2 years of supervised probation and 40 days of community confinement on Feb. 20, 2009; and Paula Gipson, age 33, of Dallas, who pled guilty on Feb. 26, 2009 and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22, 2009.

According to court documents and evidence adduced at trial, the defendant and other co-conspirators used fee-based web databases to search for potential victim account holders with large balances in home equity line of credit (HELOC) accounts. This information included name, address, date of birth, and social security number. Once the conspirators identified a victim, they used other online databases to obtain information commonly used in security questions, such as the victim’s mother’s maiden name. The conspirators then obtained credit reports on the victims in order to verify personal information and account balances.

Armed with a victim’s personal information, the conspirators called the victim’s financial institution, impersonated the victim, and transferred the majority of the available money from the HELOC account into an account from which a wire transfer could be sent. The conspirators would then wire transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars to domestic or overseas accounts controlled by members of the conspiracy. The conspirators used caller-ID spoofing services, prepaid cell phones and PC wireless Internet access cards, and transferred victims’ home telephone numbers in order to impersonate the victim and avoid identifying themselves. Evidence admitted at trial included phone recordings of a person identified by testifying witnesses as the defendant posing as bank employees and account holders attempting to make fraudulent wire transfers.

Once the fraudulently transferred funds arrived in the destination bank, a “mule” who had access to the account would withdraw funds and transfer them to other members of the conspiracy after taking a portion of the proceeds for himself. To date, the conspiracy has been linked to more than $8 million in actual losses.
This case was investigated by the Alexandria Police Department, FBI, and United States Secret Service. Assistant United States Attorney John Eisinger and Trial Attorney Tyler Newby of the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov.
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