Mahanoy man pleads guilty in international email scam
By Kaylee Lindenmuth
BOSTON, Massachusetts – A Mahanoy City man pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges, after he and others impersonated employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Frank Gregory Cedeno, 27, of Mahanoy City, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to comit money laundering in federal court in Boston. Sentencing is scheduled for March 21 next year.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, from at least November 2015 to November 2017, Cedeno conspired with others to defraud victims by posing as members of the SEC, demanding money from victims, and directing them to send it to those involved in the conspiracy, including Cedeno, who then lived in Ocoee, Florida.
The conspirators receiving money generally withdrew it from bank accounts quickly, forwarding much of it to individuals in the Dominican Republic.
“In one common version of the scam, victims received e-mails that used official-seeming documentation and the SEC seal to induce the victim to pay a fee in order to receive a portion of a legal settlement,” the Department of Justice wrote in a media release. “In another version, victims received e-mails and official-seeming documents labeling the victim a defendant in a civil lawsuit, in which the victim owed tens of thousands of dollars in supposed disgorgement, penalties and fees. The documents gave the victim a choice of either appearing in court to contest the lawsuit or paying a smaller fee.”
In August 2018, co-conspirator Leonel Alexis Valerio Santana, 28, of Boston, was sentenced to 63 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of $105,869 after pleading guilty for his role.
The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud provides for a sentence no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss in the offense, and restitution. The charge of money laundering conspiracy provides for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $500,000 or twice the value of the funds involved in the money laundering, whichever is greater.
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