SDNY HAD A BUSY DAY
25 CHARGED
>>17 OF WHICH ARE IN CUSTODY
Co-Conspirators Posted Fake Advertisements for Cars, Tricking Victims Nationwide Into Wiring More Than $4.5 Million
25 Defendants Charged In Manhattan Federal Court With Multimillion-Dollar Wire Fraud And Money Laundering Scheme
From November 2016 through July 2018, the defendants carried out a wide-ranging fraudulent scheme that typically involved impersonating legitimate sellers of cars, tricking victims into providing payment for those cars, withdrawing the funds from banks around the country using efforts designed to evade scrutiny, and wiring the proceeds outside the United States.
The fraud most commonly operated as follows: first, co-conspirators impersonated automotive dealers and collectors and claimed to be selling classic cars on various well-known internet auction and trading websites. Victims responding to the ads were in fact corresponding with a fraud scheme participant. After the victims and co-conspirators came to terms on a sale price, including down payment and shipping costs, victims were next directed to purported automotive transportation companies and were told that these companies would accept payment and transport the cars. These companies were in fact shell corporations established by the conspiracy to help perpetrate the fraud, whose corporate bank accounts were established and controlled by the defendants, awaiting wired funds from the fraud’s victims. After victims had wired payment, the defendants went to the banks to drain the victim’s funds, often starting the same day payment had been transmitted. The defendants would draw money from different bank branches in numerous withdrawals on the same day, in denominations that were varied and often kept to an amount they believed would prevent the financial institutions from recording and reporting the fraud. The co-conspirators then sent the fraud proceeds outside the United States to Eastern European countries, from where many of the conspirators originated. Victims never received the goods they believed they had purchased, and many were unable to recover their money or were left paying loans for cars that were never truly for sale. The defendants’ scheme defrauded victims of more than $4.5 million.
8 REMAIN AT LARGE
25 - 8 = 17 IN CUSTODY
DEDUSEV, ELIOZASHVILI, KUDAIBERGENOVA, LISITSKIY, LIVADNYI, MOROZOV, STARIKOV, and TUPIKIN remain at large.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/25-defendants-charged-manhattan-federal-court-multimillion-dollar-wire-fraud-and-money