Ohio man sentenced in MS, ordered to pay over $500K after email scam
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An Ohio man was sentenced in Oxford, Miss., to four years in prison and ordered to pay over $500,000 in restitution for his role in a wire fraud and money laundering scheme targeting Mississippi businesses and others across the country.
Gabriel Waters, 54, of Chillicothe, Ohio, was involved in the scheme, in which fraudsters spoofed email accounts, imitating corporate accounts of employees who control company finances.
According to the U.S. District Attorney's Office of the Northern District of Mississippi, fraudsters bought domain names that resembled the legitimate domain names owned by the victims' businesses. They used these fake emails to convince employees, customers, or company partners to send money to a bank account controlled by the fraudsters.
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The victims were led to believe that this was a legitimate business transaction.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says that Waters had a vital role in the scheme. He was responsible for setting up bank accounts in the U.S., receiving money directly from the victims, and laundering the money to different accounts before finally converting it to cryptocurrency to send overseas to the email fraudsters.
Waters was sentenced to 57 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay a total of $547,455 in restitution to his victims.
'Working with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to pursue criminal prosecutions against scammers who victimize American businesses and individuals,' said U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner. 'Reach out to law enforcement immediately if you have fallen prey to an online scam so that evidence can be gathered, and money can possibly be recouped.'
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