Man laundered $1M from romance scheme that targeted elderly victims, Keys jury finds
For more than a year, Sean Bindranauth and his co-conspirators tricked over a dozen elderly victims into sending him a total of roughly $1 million in what investigators called a romance scheme, court records show.
Bindranauth then sent the money from the United States to Nigeria through international money transfer companies and direct bank transfers.
On Wednesday, after a three-day trial, a federal jury in Key West found Bindranauth guilty of conspiring to commit money laundering and six counts of substantive money laundering — as well as conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business.
He now faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the money laundering conspiracy, 20 years in prison for each money laundering count, and five years in prison for unlicensed money transmitting.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Bindranauth’s co-conspirators — who were not named — befriended mostly older, lonely women and posed as men working in remote locations. The “men” would then convince them to send money to Bindranauth.
Bindranauth then made several transfers to different individuals in Abraka, Nigeria, according to the indictment.
Bindranauth was represented by a federal public defender who did not immediately return an emailed request for comment.
He’s scheduled to be sentenced in a Key West federal district court on Jan. 10, 2022.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 7:32 PM with the headline "Man laundered $1M from romance scheme that targeted elderly victims, Keys jury finds."
