Six U.S. citizens and a Nigerian
national were on Tuesday, sentenced to federal prison for their roles in
online fraud schemes that distributed more than $40 million in
counterfeit checks using ‘mystery shopper’ websites and ‘work from home’
scams. The criminal enterprise was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Funso Hassan, 27, an Oyo state indigene and Anthony Shane Jeffers, 44, of Maryville, Tennessee, were each sentenced to 10 years in prison. Ann Louise Franzen, 70, of Kiln, Mississippi; Gary Melvin Barnard, 64, of Palestine, Texas; Michele Gayle Fee, 55, of Stockton, California; Tanya Lynn Thomas, 52, of Turlock, California; and Shawn Ann White, 44, of Manteca, California, were each sentenced to five years in prison.
In addition to the prison sentences, U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr.,
of the Southern District of Mississippi sentenced each defendant to
three years supervised release following completion of their sentences.
Restitution to the victims for all defendants will be determined at a
later date. The sentences are the maximum statutory penalty for the
charges to which the defendants pleaded.
According to court documents, Hassan
and Jeffers admitted in their April 12 guilty pleas to conspiracy to
commit identity theft and theft of government property along with use of
mail and interstate facility to distribute proceeds of a racketeering
activity. Franzen, Barnard, Fee, Thomas and White previously pleaded
guilty to conspiracy to commit identity theft and theft of government
property.
All seven defendants were members of a
large-scale international financial fraud conspiracy that included
romance scams through online dating sites, check fraud, secret shopper
schemes and personal assistant work-from-home schemes.
Some of the defendants started as
romance scam victims only later becoming knowing participants in the
counterfeit check fraud. Victims were sent checks with mystery shopper
and personal assistant instructions.
The checks, which were counterfeit,
would bounce after the victims transmitted proceeds to various locations
in the United States which were then layered for transmission to
Nigeria. Victims then owed their banks the amount of checks and often
hundreds of dollars in bank fees.
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