SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Chatnewstv.com) — A federal jury in Puerto Rico has convicted a fifth defendant in a conspiracy to launder funds from international fraud schemes that targeted elderly and vulnerable Americans, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Oluwasegun Baiyewu, 37, of Richmond, Texas, was found guilty of money laundering conspiracy after a 22-day trial in San Juan. Prosecutors said Baiyewu and four others conspired to move money from romance scams, pandemic unemployment insurance fraud and business email compromise schemes to Nigerian transnational crime groups.
“These fraud schemes disproportionately impacted elderly or otherwise vulnerable Americans,” prosecutors said in court filings.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said the verdict showed that fraudsters and their accomplices cannot operate freely in the U.S. financial system.
“This conviction is a message to the transnational organized crime groups and their accomplices who take advantage of our open financial system: you cannot victimize Americans with impunity,” Shumate said.
U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow of Puerto Rico said the defendants “turned illicit gains into a façade of legitimacy,” defrauding both individuals and businesses. “Justice will prevail, and those who exploit others for personal gain will be held accountable,” he said.
The jury heard that the defendants used hundreds of transactions to disguise stolen funds, including buying used cars to ship overseas to Nigeria. The indictment alleged the scheme ran in 2020 and 2021, with victims in California, Illinois, Washington, Nevada, Puerto Rico and Missouri.
“The criminals involved in this scheme thought there was safety in numbers, but the U.S. Postal Inspection Service doesn’t stop until everyone involved … is brought to justice,” said Inspector in Charge Ketty Larco-Ward of the agency’s Boston Division.
The FBI Cyber Division, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General investigated the case, with support from the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force.
The defendants will be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Raúl M. Arias-Marxuach.
