Maryland woman Zenobia Walker, 65, pleaded guilty in January to her role in a a scheme in which she received over $300,000 from victims of romance scams and other fraud schemes, deposited the money in her personal bank accounts, exchanged it for cryptocurrency and passed the crypto on to her foreign co-conspirators. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Nov. 2.
Three more individuals – Tulasidas Konda, 57, and Lois Boyd, 76, both of Virginia, and Deependra Bhusal, 46, of Texas – pleaded guilty to charges in connection with a multi-year money laundering conspiracy for proceeds of various scams.
The alleged ringleader, Konda opened bank accounts and mailboxes that were used to receive money from scam victims, exchange the money for crypto and then send the crypto to wallets controlled by the trio’s foreign co-conspirators. The three laundered roughly $6 million combined, according to the government release.
Source: US Prosecutors Charge 21 Alleged ‘Money Mules’ With Using Crypto to Launder Proceeds of Cybercrimes
