A lawful permanent resident of the United States, Ivan Wilbur Seales, from the Grenadines, was found guilty of laundering nearly $1 million in proceeds of a fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims from around the country including Arizona. Numerous victims lost significant portions of their life savings to the scam.
Following a six-day jury trial, Seals was found guilty of Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering.
According to the Department of Justice, Seals kept a portion of the ill-gotten gains for himself and helped the scammers launder the remaining funds through a maze of financial transactions he conducted either through crypto currency transfers or other financial transfers offshore, to include to India.
The scam organization targeted elderly victims using “phishing attacks” such as fraudulent emails, text messages, pop-ups, or websites impersonating trusted entities like banks and software or tech companies.
Some victims observed a “pop-up” display causing their computer to freeze. These victims were directed to call other scammers who claimed to be representatives of legitimate companies such as Apple or Microsoft. Other victims received “phishing” emails or text messages indicating they had received a charge on their account from Geek squad, PayPal, or an antivirus software company.
These charges never occurred but were sent to the victims to lure them into the scheme. Once the victims called the fraudsters, they were led to believe that these “legitimate companies” erroneously transferred an over-refunded amount to the victims’ bank accounts. As instructed, victims then transferred their own money back to the scammers believing they were returning the scammers the “over-refunded amounts.”
Victims were also lied to and informed that their bank accounts had been hacked or were compromised. Some were also told that money from their bank accounts was directed to child sexual abuse material, pornography, or a gambling site. To further the scam, the fraudsters directed the victims to transfer their money to various locations to “protect” their accounts and/or to “catch” the scammers.
Seales was remanded into custody after the jury’s verdict. Sentencing is set for June 18, 2026.
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