A Joplin woman who helped con artists who were conducting an online romance scam launder their money should spend 37 months behind bars, according to a sentencing memorandum filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
The memorandum, written by Assistant U. S. Attorney Casey Clark, notes that while Bonnie Henning, 62, pleaded guilty to a lesser money laundering charge, she still played a key role by laundering more than $302,960 between July 2020 and August 2022 and should have to serve prison time.
From the sentencing memorandum:
The defendant received a direct warning from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) in November 2021 that she was laundering fraud proceeds and the FBI directed her to cease the activity.She ignored this warning and continued accepting fraud proceeds through the mail from these fraudsters, even going so far as to direct the fraudsters to send the money to her elderly neighbor’s address after she detected that the United States Postal Service was investigating her illegal conduct.
The proceeds, which came to the defendant in numerous transactions and mailings over the course of two years, were sent to the defendant by vulnerable victims who were defrauded through online romance scams.
The defendant and others then utilized the illegal proceeds for their own personal benefit and for the benefit of the conspiracy.
Henning's sentencing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday in U. S. District Court in Springfield.
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