Social Security Fraud Leads To Lengthy Jail Terms

     From a press release:

Two Raleigh, North Carolina men, Joseph Kingsley Irona and Mamady Fadima Conde, were sentenced for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both men previously pled guilty to the charge. Irona was sentenced to 84 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Conde was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment and five years of supervised release. ...

According to court documents and other information presented in court, Irona and Conde were involved in a highly complex network of bank accounts at multiple financial institutions. This network was used for laundering over $1 million criminal proceeds derived from various fraud schemes, particularly identity theft. One particularly intricate scheme involved the misuse of stolen victim identifiers to submit online applications for Social Security retirement benefits in victims’ names. After the applications were approved, the resulting payments were unlawfully deposited into accounts within the money laundering network, including accounts held by Irona and Conde. After receiving criminal proceeds, Irona and Conde took elaborate steps to dissipate the funds and obscure their source and destination. ...