A Lynn man was sentenced to more than four years in prison for a bank fraud and money laundering scheme that netted $1.4 million from a Korean company.
Chukwuemeka Eze, 37, was sentenced in Boston federal court to 51 months in prison and five years of supervised release. U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin also ordered Eze to pay $862,823 in restitution.
Eze pleaded guilty to bank fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft in November 2019 after being arrested in June. He has been held in federal custody since that time.
According to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office, Eze admitted that he used a victim’s name, date of birth and Social Security number without permission to open bank accounts in the victim’s name and in the name of a fictitious Massachusetts corporation that Eze created, Levistronix GMB Ltd.
The name Levistronix was used because of its similarity to the Swiss company Levitronix GmbH, according to the statement. In May and June 2018, others involved in the scheme sent fake invoices totaling approximately $1.4 million to a Korean company, one of Levitronix’s customers. The fake invoices directed the company to send the $1.4 million to Eze’s Massachusetts bank account for Levistronix.
When Eze received the money, he withdrew cash, and spent tens of thousands of dollars on retail purchases, including Apple laptops and Zales’ jewelry, according to the statement. He also purchased $700,000 in bank checks payable to other fictitious companies that he controlled, which he deposited into bank accounts in those companies’ names.
Eze in turn made cash withdrawals, retail purchases and wire transfers from those bank accounts, all to conceal the fact that the money was the proceeds of the fraud scheme. In doing so, Eze spent or disbursed more than $862,000 of the Korean company’s money.