TRENTON, N.J. – A Monmouth County, New Jersey, man was sentenced to 60 months in prison for laundering money on behalf of the Cape Town Zone of Black Axe, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.
Andrew Suarez, 30, of Middletown, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp to an indictment charging him with money laundering conspiracy. Judge Shipp imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From August 2017 through December 2017, Suarez worked with conspirators to launder money to entities in the Cape Town, South Africa, area, including to an account in the name of Abravoo Trading Company, an entity controlled by a founding member of the Cape Town Zone of Black Axe. Black Axe members were responsible for widespread internet-based fraud schemes.
Suarez opened up bank accounts in the United States, which were then used to conceal money obtained through business email compromises and other fraud schemes. Suarez transferred the proceeds of the fraud schemes to other U.S. bank accounts and wired proceeds to bank accounts in Cape Town, South Africa. To avoid detection, Suarez changed the information on some of his bank accounts, so the accounts listed the name and address of a victim. The total loss amount attributed to Suarez’s conduct is approximately $525,000.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Shipp sentenced Suarez to three years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, Red Bank Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark, and the U.S. Secret Service’s Newark Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron Hatley. He also thanked the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago, for its assistance in the case.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard G. Shephard of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Trenton.
Background to the Black Axe:
Described by the FBI as a group of Nigerian men who form the Cape Town chapter of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, also known as “Black Axe”.
According to the statement, the accusations were that they made up stories about travelling for work and then suddenly asked their target for money for an unfortunate event “often involving a construction site or problems with a crane”.
They allegedly used social media websites, online dating websites, and voice-over-internet protocol phone numbers to find and talk to victims in the US under various aliases like Alan Dupont, Philip Coughlan and Aiden Wilson.
The group is believed to have used various aliases to solicit funds from unknowing victims. A common narrative used by the Group for romance scams involves the purported online love interest traveling to Cape Town, South Africa to work on a construction project and requesting that the victim first send phones, tablets, and/or laptop computers to South Africa after purportedly being mugged. Victims are also told that the purported online love interest needs a loan to pay for repairs for a faulty crane at the construction site, to pay for legal fees incurred as a result of an accident at the construction site, and/or to pay for foreign taxes to release a larger sum of money owed to the purported love interest.
Eight suspected Black Axe leaders were arrested in Cape Town and Johannesburg in 2021, leading to a massive drop in the group’s activities and similar crimes. They were extradited to the US, where they were charged with stealing more than EUR 6.25 million from romance scam victims there.
Content retrieved from: https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/newark/news/monmouth-county-man-sentenced-to-five-years-in-prison-for-laundering-money-for-black-axe-in-south-africa.