A Kenyan national living in the US has pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy involving romance scams that has been targeting individuals in the United States.
On Monday, Florence Mwende Musau aged 36, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud.
Her sentencing has been scheduled for October 14, 2021, by the US District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs.
Mwende and five others were charged on March 25, 2021, in connection with their roles in online scams that are alleged to have collectively defrauded victims of more than Sh430,200,000.
According to the statement published on the United States Attorney’s Office website, Mwende who previously was residing in Canton participated in a series of romance scams designed to defraud victims into sending money to bank accounts controlled by her and others.
The Kenyan national is said to have executed the schemes by using fake passports in the names of numerous aliases to open bank accounts in and around Boston to collect and launder the proceeds of the romance scams.
After, Mwende executed large cash withdrawals from those accounts, often multiple times on a single day and generally structured in amounts less than one million in an effort to evade detection.
The charge of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release, a fine of up to Sh1.4 million or twice.
The sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
