From the comfort of his desk, Jean Mejia-Garcia initiated a scheme where he acted as non-profit organizations or vendors and tricked city government departments and employees into fraudulently sending payments that were owed to the contracted organizations and vendors that he was posing as. The tactic is known as a business email compromise scheme (BEC) and is one of the most financially damaging online crimes as it exploits the fact that so many of us rely on email to conduct business. And fraudsters love lucrative exploitation.
From February 2022 to February 2023, Garcia worked with his co-conspirators, Nana Kwabena Amuah and Shimea McDonald, to procure fake identity documents to establish shell companies which were used to set up bank accounts. The conspirators impersonated nonprofit organizations who had business dealings with numerous Secretaries of State with the intent to manipulate and redirect payments to their own bank accounts. This scheme is happening in every state, folks. Every Secretary of State should be doing ID verification and Authentication on every new business owner.
This ring of fraudsters victimized the city of Lexington in August 2022, by pretending to be someone from the Community Action Council, which at the time was working with the city on a housing project. Using email, Garcia impersonated the nonprofit organization and convinced a city official to wire the $3.9 million owed to the nonprofit organization, to a bank account that was managed by Amuah. After the victims wired the payments to the accounts Amuah Mejia-Garcia to” move it out.” On to the next victim. Fortunately, Lexington was able to recoup the money it wired to these fraudsters, but dozens of other government agencies and businesses across the country couldn’t.
On August 8, 2024, Mejia-Garcia was sentenced to six years in prison. Both Amuah and McDonald were sentenced to seven years in prison each. All were ordered to pay $4,690,870.81 in restitution.
Excellent job by the FBI in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Third person sentenced in email scam that nearly cost city of Lexington $3.9 million” published by the Lexington Herald-Leader on August 8, 2024.
A New Jersey man who took part in a scheme that nearly cost the city of Lexington $3.9 million has been sentenced to six years in federal prison. Jean Mejia-Garcia also is required with two other defendants to repay $4.6 million under the sentence.
People involved in the scam posed as non-profit organizations or vendors and contacted cities, businesses and individuals and tricked them into sending payments, according to court records. The tactic is known as a business email compromise scheme.
Lexington was able to recoup the money it wired to scammers, but dozens of other government agencies and businesses across the country couldn’t.
