US authorities have convicted two individuals for laundering and conspiring to launder the proceeds of a business email compromise (BEC) scheme.
The conspirators of the BEC scheme infiltrated the email servers of a victim company by using malware or executing phishing attacks. They would then impersonate the victim’s business partner and cause the victim business to send the money to the business partner, when in fact the money would be transferred to the conspirators’ bank accounts. Using this scheme, the defendants and their co-conspirators fraudulently procured and laundered over $13 million.
One of the two convicts withdrew the illicit proceeds in cash and delivered it to other conspirators, including the second convict. The second convict helped the conspirators to open bank accounts that would then receive the illicit proceeds.
Source: US Department of Justice