SAN JOSE - Maxito Pean was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $233,200 in restitution for money laundering announced United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch. The sentence was handed down late yesterday by the Honorable Lucy H. Koh, U.S. District Judge.
Pean, 52, who is from Haiti and had been residing in Florida, pleaded guilty on Feb. 24, 2016, to one count of engaging in monetary transactions using criminally derived property. According to the plea agreement, Pean admitted that in January and February of 2013, he recruited people to open two bank accounts for the purpose of receiving proceeds of criminal activity. For the first account, Pean arranged for a homeless man from Florida to open a bank account in Lauderhill, Florida, in the name of "Southeastern Capital Group, Inc." For the second account, Pean arranged for a person to open an account in the name of "Meade Financial Services." Pean acknowledged he intended to use those accounts to receive and transfer the funds in a way he hoped would not be traceable back to him.
Further, according to the plea agreement, Pean admitted an unknown person fraudulently caused an employee at Deutsche Bank in San Francisco to transfer $233,200 from a victim’s bank account to one of the accounts controlled by Pean. Pean admitted that the money was, in fact, the proceeds of wire fraud committed against the victim of an email takeover scam.
Pean was indicted on Oct. 29, 2014, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349; wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343; conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C.§ 1956(h); money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i); engaging in monetary transactions using the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, in violation of 18 U. S.C. § 1957; and aiding and abetting, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2.
In addition to the prison term and restitution, Judge Koh also sentenced the defendant to a 3-year period of supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Frey prosecuted the case with the assistance of Elise Etter. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the IRS and the Regional Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) task force.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
