PENNSYLVANIA.- Two citizens of the Dominican Republic were each sentenced to two years in prison for taking part in a money-laundering conspiracy connected to scams targeting older adults in the United States.
Federal Judge Nora Barry Fischer sentenced Luis Alfonso Bisonó Rodríguez, 35, and Engels Guillermo Almengot Valerio, 26. Both must also serve three years of supervised release after their respective prison terms.
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U.S. authorities said Rodríguez lived in Cleveland, Ohio, while Valerio lived in Paterson, New Jersey. Authorities indicated that both men were in the United States illegally.
Court documents say the defendants participated in a conspiracy to launder money from the so-called grandparent scam, a scheme that authorities said was operated from the Dominican Republic.
The method involved contacting older people and convincing them that a grandchild or another close relative was facing an emergency and urgently needed money.
According to the case file, members of the network coordinated with rideshare drivers to collect cash from victims’ homes and later deliver it to other participants in the scheme.
Authorities say Rodríguez and Valerio directly received money from those deliveries. Some of the funds were deposited into bank accounts, while other amounts were sent through transfers to the Dominican Republic.
In Valerio’s case, authorities said he also coordinated some of the trips used to collect the cash. Several of those trips ended with funds being delivered to Rodríguez, according to information presented in court.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan T. Conway. The investigation was conducted by the FBI with the cooperation of several police departments across the United States.
U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti highlighted the work of the agencies involved in the investigation that led to the prosecution and subsequent convictions of both men.
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