Pennsylvania Woman Pleads Guilty to Laundering About $390,000 in Business Email Compromise Fraud Proceeds
PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. Department of Justice announced on November 9 that Charlette Baquero, 32, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty that day before United States District Judge Joshua D. Wolson to conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, laundering of monetary instruments, and engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from specified unlawful activity. The charges arise from her role in a conspiracy to launder the proceeds of a business email compromise scheme that defrauded a municipality of approximately $390,000. She is scheduled to be sentenced on February 19, 2027, and faces a maximum possible term of 50 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $1,543,427.54 fine.
As detailed in court filings, from about July 2020 to early 2021, Baquero participated in a money laundering conspiracy with a person she knew as 'Omar,' who asked her to set up bank accounts for a drainage company incorporated in her name. The company presented itself as legitimate but was in reality a shell company that performed no actual work and generated no lawful income. The accounts were opened to receive fraud funds and send them to other co-conspirators in order to obscure the source of the funds, and Baquero monitored the amount and frequency of funds going into and out of the accounts.
One account she opened received three wire transfers from the victim municipality: $193,016 on December 3, 2020, $100,705.70 on December 16, 2020, and $96,174 on January 13, 2021. Within days of receiving the proceeds, she participated in or caused multiple transfers of the funds to other money launderers in the conspiracy. For her role, she had been promised a portion of the proceeds but ultimately received only a used car.
Baquero was charged by indictment in January of this year. The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys S. Chandler Harris and Nancy E. Potts. United States Attorney David Metcalf announced the plea.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国司法部总部大楼（GSM联邦固定图库）。 / Photo: U.S. Department of Justice headquarters (GSM federal asset library).
