Ivan Wilbur Seales, a 58-year-old resident of New York and citizen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering on April 8 following a six-day jury trial in Tucson, Arizona.
Seales laundered nearly $1 million in proceeds from a fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims across the United States, including Arizona. Many victims lost large portions of their life savings as a result of these scams.
According to authorities, Seales kept some of the stolen funds for himself while helping other scammers move money through complex financial transactions. These included cryptocurrency transfers and offshore transactions to locations such as India. The scam operation used phishing attacks—fraudulent emails, text messages, pop-ups, or websites—to impersonate trusted companies like banks and technology firms.
Victims often encountered fake pop-up messages that froze their computers or received phishing emails claiming unauthorized charges from companies such as Geek Squad or PayPal. Although these charges never occurred, they were used to lure individuals into contacting the scammers. Once in contact, victims were told that legitimate companies had mistakenly transferred too much money into their accounts and were instructed to send back funds they believed did not belong to them.
The fraudsters also falsely informed some victims that their bank accounts had been hacked or compromised by criminal activity involving pornography or gambling sites. Victims were then persuaded to transfer money under the pretense of protecting their assets or assisting law enforcement efforts against cybercriminals.
Seales is a lawful permanent resident of the United States and was remanded into custody after his conviction. Sentencing is scheduled for June 18, 2026. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and New York State Police conducted the investigation with prosecution handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Arizona.
