Today, Jerome Brown, a 42-year-old from Detroit, Michigan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow to five years in federal prison. Brown was involved in a scheme that laundered money from federal and North Carolina state-tax refunds. He is also required to pay $604,889.64 in restitution. Brown pled guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on January 28, 2022.
The sentence was announced by Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, alongside officials from the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), U.S. Secret Service (USSS), Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG), and Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General (SSA-OIG).
Brown admitted to collaborating with individuals in Nigeria and Michigan to launder wire-fraud proceeds from February through August 2020. Funds were placed on Green Dot pre-paid debit cards. Brown then deposited the funds into bank accounts, withdrew them via ATMs, and purchased money orders and cryptocurrency to conceal the fraud.
Both the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the North Carolina Department of Revenue (NCDOR) were affected by the scheme. These agencies issue tax refunds to eligible individuals, which at the time could be paid onto pre-paid debit cards. Brown's co-conspirators registered these cards using stolen personally identifiable information (PII) from victims across the U.S., including in Maryland.
The scheme included applying for false IRS tax refunds, NCDOR tax refunds, and state unemployment insurance payments. Co-conspirators would send the stolen funds via ACH transfers onto the pre-paid cards. The co-conspirator in Nigeria would then alert Brown and others when funds were available. Brown and his accomplices withdrew the funds and returned what remained to Nigeria for a commission.
Efforts were made to conceal identities and the fraudulent activities by using different withdrawal locations, converting funds to cash, and issuing money orders to others. Brown reportedly cashed out approximately $540,975.80 from the scheme, keeping about $216,390.36 and sending $324,585.44 in Bitcoin to Nigeria. In total, they applied for around $1,255,761 from the IRS and $588,716 from the NCDOR.
U.S. Attorney Hayes praised the investigative work of IRS-CI, USSS, DHS-OIG, SSA-OIG, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Thanks were also extended to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Wright and Darren Gardner for prosecuting the case.
Further information about the case and resources available from the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office can be found on their official website.