A Los Angeles man pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to launder money obtained from internet-related fraud.
Charles Singleton, 64, entered his plea in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of New Jersey.
From September 2018 to August 2020, Singleton worked with accomplices to launder money obtained through business email compromises, a method of wire fraud often targeting businesses or individuals working on deals that involve high-dollar wire transactions, federal prosecutors said.
The fraud is carried out by hacking or “spoofing” legitimate email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to cause employees of a target company to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds, most often to accounts controlled by the fraud perpetrators.
According to his plea agreement, Singleton opened several business bank accounts in the names of companies he controlled and received proceeds of wire fraud in those accounts. Singleton and associates then withdrew and transferred money from various bank accounts and shared among themselves the account information of bank accounts.
Singleton also executed at least one fraudulent contract with a conspirator for a wire of $70,000. As part of the plea, Singleton agreed to forfeit over $1.1 million constituting proceeds derived from the conspiracy.
The charge of money laundering conspiracy carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 or twice the value of the funds involved in the transfer, whichever is greater. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 28.