A 27-year-old woman, Whitney Adams, of Hagerstown, Maryland, was sentenced last week to 48 months in prison and ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution to 17 victims.
One Arizona victim lost nearly $5 million to the scams, sending over $1 million to Adams’ and her co-conspirator’s accounts and the remaining money to multiple other individuals. Adams’ co-conspirator pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 18, 2024.
Adams pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering on May 16, 2023.
According to the Department of Justice, between January 2021 and April 2022, Adams laundered money for scammers who lured victims into various online frauds. In some instances, the victims believed they were sending money to support an online romantic partner who falsely stated they needed to pay taxes and fees to release an inheritance or gold bars.
The stories told to the victims by the scammers were fraudulent.
The scammers directed the victims’ monies into accounts controlled by Adams and her co-conspirator. When Adams and her co-conspirator received the fraudulent monies, they kept a fee for themselves, and then transferred the funds, via trade-based money laundering or other means, to Ghana. Adams and her co-conspirator set up phony businesses and then opened business bank accounts to hide the transfer of the fraudulently obtained funds.
The FBI traced $4,437,604, sent by 106 victims, through Adams’ and her co-conspirator’s bank accounts.