February 19, 2016
An Ohio man was sentenced to 108 months in prison for his role in laundering money for a Costa Rica-based “sweepstakes fraud” scheme that victimized U.S. residents, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose of the Western District of North Carolina.
Toth was convicted on Aug. 4, 2015, following a two-day jury trial, of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and six counts of international money laundering stemming from his role in laundering money for a scheme to defraud two U.S. residents over the age of 55 out of more than $300,000 in savings. The evidence at trial showed that telemarketers in Costa Rica, who were the defendant’s co-conspirators, posed as federal agents and deceived the two victims, who were husband and wife, into believing that they had won a large monetary prize in a sweepstakes contest. The co-conspirators falsely told the victims that in order to receive the “prize,” the victims had to wire thousands of dollars to Costa Rica for a “refundable insurance fee.”
The evidence at trial showed that, between approximately November 2009 and November 2010, Toth was a U.S.-based “smasher,” an individual who arranges to pick up victims’ money and take it to the fraudulent telemarketing organization, who facilitated the laundering of funds received from the elderly victims.