Category: Bank fraud

Money Laundering! Learn how a Crook Finds the Best Hidey-Hole for Ill-gotten Payola

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

If you have been wondering how one of the Senate’s least wealthy Senators is now a millionaire and you have also heard about presidential candidate Joe Biden’s numerous ‘homes,’ Revolver News has pulled together a few stories from recent years to help give us some clarity.

First this from Town and Country magazine:

All of Joe Biden’s Homes, In Photos

 

For most of his 44-year-long career in public office, Joe Biden had a nickname: Middle Class Joe. He also often called himself “one of the poorest members of Congress.” His scrappy roots—born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to a father who suffered a number of financial setbacks—are now a big part of his 2020 presidential campaign’s plan to appeal to American voters. But according to the Wall Street Journal, the reason why Biden was often at the bottom of the wealth ladder among his colleagues in the Senate had a lot to do with his life-long obsession with real estate. “Even as a kid in high school I’d been seduced by real estate,” he wrote in his 2007 autobiography, Promises to Keep.

Biden began buying homes—especially those that were outside his budget—in his twenties, taking out multiple mortgages and receiving loans against life insurance policies. His net worth was often in the negatives—in 2007, he was ranked the least wealthy senator.

Today, the 77-year-old Democratic presidential nominee is hardly middle class anymore. According to a 2019 Forbes estimate, Biden and his wife Jill are worth $9 million, much of that accrued from speaking fees and book deals that came pouring in after his vice presidency. About $4 million of that worth is in his real estate.

More here.

Then this…..

From Curbed which features

Why financial criminals use real estate to launder money

 

The 2018 story featuring Paul Manafort tells us the steps for how to hide dirty money from scrutiny. Buying luxury items/real estate is a common practice.

 

Real estate is often the preferred destination for a financial criminal’s ill-gotten gains for the same reason real estate is attractive to any investor: Real estate prices are generally stable and will appreciate over time. Real estate is also functional; a money launderer could use the property as a second home or rent it out, earning income from the investment.

“You’re not gonna lose money on the transaction,” said Chris Quick, a former FBI agent who now runs a private investigation firm in South Carolina. “You buy a piece of real estate for a million, you’re gonna get rent on it or you’re hoping it’ll appreciate in value so when you sell 4 or 5 years down the road, you’re gonna make 25 percent on it. That’s one of the reasons why it’s attractive.”

Real estate also offers a path to legitimacy that is more efficient than the purchase of stocks or other assets related to financial institutions. It’s also less subject to scrutiny—those institutions have a legal requirement to report suspicious activities.

Buying real estate is the last step in what law-enforcement officials describe as a three-step money-laundering process.

Continue reading here.

Remember we also heard that Socialist Bernie Sanders owned a few ‘homes.’ Hmmmm!

Boston “Man” Nabbed for Stealing Millions from PPP Program

~ Ann Corcoran

Reader Tom sent me a story from Sundance at the Conservative Treehouse about how Elijah Majak Buoi has been busy amassing millions of dollars meant to help small businesses survive the Chinese virus crisis.

The Conservative Treehouse story is here.  And the press release from the US Justice Department is here.

There is lots of coverage of the “man” who I am guessing is a ‘new American’ from Africa (Sudan maybe?), but I was searching for a story that might have a photo and found this one at Universal Hub:

Area man charged with $2 million in coronavirus loan fraud

Federal prosecutors today charged a Winchester man with wire fraud for his four applications for federal loans aimed at helping small businesses continue to make payroll despite losses related to Covid-19, alleging he made up employee numbers and that the few employees he does have are all based in India.

According to a federal complaint unsealed today, Elijah Majak Buoi of Winchester was rejected for three of his applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans – which can be converted to grants – but was granted $2 million on the fourth, despite giving different employee and payroll numbers on the applications.

In addition to having Buoi arrested today, the US Attorney’s office is asking a judge to freeze his bank accounts so he cannot transfer the money he received out of the country. At his arraignment, a federal magistrate judge in Worcester set cash bail of $15,000.

[….]

The affidavit*** states that Buoi first filed a PPP application with Bank of America in April for $7.5 million, based on the 353 employees he said he had, all allegedly in Massachusetts. After the bank rejected his request, he tried again with three other lenders, asking each for $2 million, with his employee count on applications ranging from 18 to 96 employees.

The first two lenders also rejected his requests, but the final one, to which he claimed he had 96 US employees, approved his request and he had $2 million deposited in his Bank of America checking account earlier this month.

According to the affidavit, Buoi’s LinkedIn page says he has just five employees, and all are in India, making them ineligible for PPP coverage.

[….]

According to the affidavit, Buoi transferred some $1.2 million of the PPP payment from one Bank of America account to another and has withdrawn $27,000 of it – $20,000 in a wire transfer to India.

More here.

The US government was able to get most of our money back.

***Affidavit is attached to the article.

Nigerian Fraud Ring at Work Ripping Off America Again

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

As our Chinese virus-generated economic collapse continues, helping to move that process along, the Secret Service is investigating a complex Nigerian fraud scheme to rip us off using the unemployment assistance meant for Americans who have lost their jobs.

Several states have been hit so far by the “sophisticated” attack, but authorities believe the hit will become more widespread.

Nigerian fraudsters have played a major role on the pages of ‘Frauds and Crooks.’  See my Nigeria tag!

From the New York Times:

Feds Suspect Vast Fraud Network Is Targeting U.S. Unemployment Systems

 

SEATTLE — A group of international fraudsters appears to have mounted an immense, sophisticated attack on U.S. unemployment systems, creating a network that has already siphoned millions of dollars in payments that were intended to avert an economic collapse, according to federal authorities.

The attackers have used detailed information about U.S. citizens, such as social security numbers that may have been obtained from cyber hacks of years past, to file claims on behalf of people who have not been laid off, officials said. The attack has exploited state unemployment systems at a time when they are straining to process a crush of claims from an employment crisis unmatched since the Great Depression.

Suzi LeVine

With many states rushing to pay claims, payments have gone straight to direct-deposit accounts. In Washington State, the agency tasked with managing unemployment claims there began realizing the extent of the problem in recent days when still-employed people called to question why they had received confirmation paperwork in the mail.

“This is a gut punch,” said Suzi LeVine, the commissioner of Washington State’s Employment Security Department.

In a memo obtained by The New York Times, investigators from the U.S. Secret Service said they had information suggesting that the scheme was coming from a well-organized Nigerian fraud ring and could result in “potential losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.” Roy Dotson, a special agent who specializes in financial fraud at the Secret Service, said in an interview investigators were still working to pinpoint who was involved and exactly where they were.

[….]

Mr. Dotson said it appeared the fraud was being aided by a substantial number of “mules” — people, often in the United States, who were used as intermediaries for money laundering after making connections with fraudsters online. He warned people to be wary of quick-money job offers or other suspicious financial arrangements.

The Secret Service memo said Washington State had emerged as the primary target thus far, but there was also evidence of attacks in Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Wyoming. The agency warned that every state was vulnerable and could be targeted, noting that the attackers appeared to have extensive records of personally identifiable information, or P.I.I.

[….]

Ms. LeVine said she did not want to put a number on the losses so far in Washington State but believed it was in the millions of dollars.

More here.

One more reason that the Trump Administration should be praised for making it harder for Nigerians to get into the US!

Indian National Ripped off Americans/Others for Millions via Call Center Scam

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 4 Comments

He was on the run and we tracked him down in Singapore.

If you’ve ever gotten one of those calls where someone tells you they are from the IRS and you owe money, surely you hung up! However thousands of gullible people did not hang up and sent this Indian crook their hard-earned money.

Well one more of the international crooks ripping us off will now be behind bars.

Thanks to reader Charles for tipping me off about this story, here is the US Justice Department news about Hitesh Madhubhai Patel aka Hitesh Hinglaj, 43, of Ahmedabad, India:

(By the way, I like the fact that we are now seeing mention of the nationality of crooks more prominently mentioned sparing us from having to spend time playing the secret decoder ring game with the criminal’s name.)

Indian national convicted of role in call center scam that victimized thousands in the U.S.

HOUSTON – An Indian national has entered a guilty plea for his role in operating and funding India-based call centers which defrauded thousands of victims out of millions of dollars between 2013 and 2016.

Hitesh Madhubhai Patel aka Hitesh Hinglaj, 43, of Ahmedabad, India, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as well as a general conspiracy to commit identification fraud, access device fraud, money laundering and to impersonate a federal officer or employee.

“Hitesh Patel played a prominent role in this massive, India-based fraud scheme that bilked vulnerable Americans out of millions of dollars,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This important resolution would not have occurred without the assistance of our Singaporean colleagues, to whom we extend our deep appreciation.”

Patel and his conspirators perpetrated a complex scheme in which employees from call centers in Ahmedabad, India, impersonated officials from the IRS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). They also engaged in other telephone call scams designed to defraud victims throughout the United States. U.S. victims were threatened with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay alleged monies owed to the government.

An image of a call center at a website that also reported this news entitled: ‘Financial Fraud News’. https://www.financialfraudnews.com/indian-national-convicted-of-role-in-call-center-scam-that-victimized-thousands-in-the-u-s/

Those who fell victim to the scammers were instructed how to provide payment, including by purchasing general purpose reloadable (GPR) cards or wiring money. Upon payment, the call centers would immediately turn to a network of “runners” based in the United States to liquidate and launder the fraudulently-obtained funds.

In his plea, Patel admitted to operating and funding several India-based call centers from which the fraud schemes were perpetrated, including organizational co-defendant call center HGLOBAL. Patel frequently corresponded by email and WhatsApp messaging with co-defendants to exchange credit card numbers, telephone scam scripts, deposit slips, payment information, call center operations information, instructions and bank account information. The scripts included impersonation of IRS, USCIS, Canada Revenue Agency and Australian Tax Office personnel as well as payday loan, U.S. government grant and debt collection fraud schemes.

Patel also received monthly income and expense reports to his personal email from the call centers and used his Indian cell phone number to access GPR cards through automated telephone systems on many occasions.

A co-defendant described Patel as “the top person in India and the boss for whom most of the other defendants worked.” Another co-defendant claimed Patel was arrested in India in 2016, but paid a bribe and was released. Additionally, Patel admitted he was accountable for approximately $25-65 million.

Patel was extradited from Singapore in April 2019 to face charges in this large-scale telefraud and money laundering scheme. Singapore authorities apprehended Patel at the request of the United States pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant in September 2018 after Patel flew there from India.

As I have said before, the President should regularly highlight all of the scams his Justice Department is busting.

Brazilian Man Arrested for Bank Fraud, used Dunkin Donuts Gift Cards

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

I’m continually amazed at the complexity of the scams many foreigners are using to rip-off Americans and America.

Stories similar to this one pass me by every day and I can’t possibly post them all, but ones with a twist, like this one, are interesting and worth reporting.

Rarely are we rewarded with photos of the foreign fraudsters! Estefano Dall Anese Borlotti

In this case Estefano Dall Anese Borlotti, 35, is here illegally and according to one report on his arrest, he used a Brazilian passport to obtain a Florida drivers license—is that possible!

Can a person in the country apparently illegally (he is now being held on an immigration detainer) just willy-nilly get a drivers license?

Here is the bare outline of the scheme that enabled him to steal tens of thousands of dollars from New Hampshire banks.

Secret Service: Brazilian’s bank data scheme hits Seacoast ATMs

PORTSMOUTH — A Secret Service agent’s affidavit alleges a Brazilian man, with unnamed accomplices, were able to transfer stolen bank data onto Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards they used to withdraw more than $100,000 from bank ATMs in Manchester, Barrington, Dover, Durham and Portsmouth.

The affidavit was filed with the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire by Special Agent Timothy Benitez on Oct. 24, leading to a warrant for the arrest of Estefano Dall Anese Borlotti, 35.

Miami, Florida, police records show Borlotti was arrested Thursday for unrelated charges alleging he “reincoded” stolen bank data onto credit cards and is being held there on $22,500 bail, as well as an immigration detainer.

[….]

The federal charges in New Hampshire allege Borlotti reincoded bank account information onto Dunkin’ Donuts cards to withdraw cash at Federal Savings Bank locations in Barrington, Dover, Durham, Portsmouth and Rochester at different times in April and May.

[….]

The affidavit notes the Dunkin’ Donuts cards contained “a wide variety of both United States and foreign” bank account information and were used to withdraw cash across the Seacoast, as well as in Brazil.

[….]

Miami, Florida, police records report Borlotti is being held there on charges alleging trafficking counterfeit credit cards, organized fraud and two counts of credit card forgery/intent to defraud. He’s also being held on a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer, according to court records.

Read the whole story for more details on the scam.

And, see here where we learn about the drivers license:

Officials said Borlotti has a Brazilian passport, which he used to obtain a Florida driver’s license.

Such clever foreign fraudsters among us!

Reminder!  Almost every day there is new news at Refugee Resettlement Watch. Check it out!