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August 2023
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Two men have been jailed for money laundering for an organised crime network that was defrauding victims of millions of pounds through a sophisticated ‘smishing’ scam.
Quin Huang, 37 (12.12.83) of Prospect Row, Newham and Clarke Morgan-Findlay, 27 (25.10.93), of Hunsdon Road, Lewisham, were sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on Thursday, 11 March. Huang was sentenced to five years and six months’ imprisonment while Morgan-Findlay was sentenced to two years and six months’ imprisonment. Huang pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering at Inner London Crown Court on Friday, 21 August 2020. He pleaded guilty to a further count of money laundering and one count of bribery at the same court on Thursday, 28 January. Morgan-Findlay pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering at Inner London Crown Court on Friday, 4 September 2020. Do you need the services of money laundering solicitors. The convictions are part of a complex investigation by the Met into an organised crime network (OCN) responsible for ‘smishing’ fraud offences across the UK. The losses attributed to this OCN against two major UK banks is conservatively estimated to be in the region of £20-£30million. The method targets individuals and companies using SMS text messages to induce victims to divulge their personal bank account information. In most cases, the victim would receive a text message appearing to be from their bank requesting a call in relation to an unusual payment. The fraudulent message usually appears on the victim’s mobile phone in the same message thread as genuine messages received from their bank, deceiving the victim into thinking it is a legitimate message. The number the victim is asked to call is not a genuine banking number and would put them in direct contact with the fraudsters who posed as banking staff and would take the details needed to access the victim’s bank account. The victim’s money is then fraudulently transferred out of their account by the criminals into ‘mule’ bank accounts that have been set-up for this purpose. Once in these accounts, the money needed to be laundered, in a process known as ‘cashing out’, which was Huang and Morgan-Findlay’s role. These mule accounts had been set up in the names of individuals who were recruited by Morgan-Findlay on social media. Huang and Morgan-Findlay would attend high-end stores, usually in Oxford Street and Knightsbridge in central London and would purchase luxury items such as designer handbags, jewellery and gift cards. They would then send these goods to the OCN that had organised the smishing fraud. Enquiries revealed that Huang and Morgan-Findlay were in regular contact with each other. Huang would ask Morgan-Findlay to obtain mule bank accounts. Morgan-Findlay would then recruit people on social media to open mule bank accounts, promising them a percentage of the proceeds. Huang would then provide details of the mule bank accounts to the OCN. Both Huang and Morgan-Findlay had access to the accounts and Morgan-Findlay would often make a small ‘tester’ payment into them from his own bank account. When a smishing fraud took place and money was transferred into a mule account, Huang would contact Morgan-Findlay and they would meet at an agreed location in central London to ‘cash out.’ After the laundering process was completed, Morgan-Findlay would often brag to his numerous contacts and send videos and screenshots of the mule account displaying the stolen proceeds in a bid to encourage them to open more mule accounts. The defendants’ mobile phones had thousands of messages relating to these offences as well as photographs, screenshots and videos of mule bank accounts and bank cards. It is not possible to establish the precise number of how many money laundering offences are evidenced on the mobile phones, but it is believed to be in the hundreds. However, the prosecution was limited to a total of 15 offences of money laundering – 12 between the dates of 11 July 2017 and 2 October 2017 and three between the dates of 28 August 2019 and 16 January 2020, totalling in excess of £250,000 of losses to victims. The Met commenced its investigation after officers were alerted by the Cyber Defence Alliance (CDA) to a Facebook account, which appeared to be in use for the sole purpose of attracting money mules. The CDA came across the account after it identified a campaign on social media to recruit money mules. The CDA subsequently managed to identify the mule herder as Morgan-Findley and it submitted a detailed intelligence package to the MPS, which led to detectives undertaking extensive additional enquiries. Videos and photographs were posted on the account linked to Morgan-Findley requesting various types of accounts that he wanted. In one of the videos, Morgan-Findlay is seen wearing a Cartier watch with a black strap. During another communication, he gave a mobile number that he could be contacted on – which came back as a number belonging to him. On 11 April 2018, Morgan-Findlay was arrested by officers, who recovered the mobile phones and a number of items including a Cartier watch identical to the one in the Facebook video. He was released under investigation pending further enquiries. He was interviewed under caution on two further occasions in 2018 and 2019, where he answered no comment to all questions put to him. On Thursday, 18 June 2020, Huang was arrested at his home address on suspicion of money laundering. Officers seized £107,325 in cash as well as designer handbags and watches. During his interview, he initially denied any involvement before changing his story to say he had been threatened into doing it. He was charged on the same day. Officers re-arrested Morgan-Findlay at his home address on Tuesday, 23 June 2020 on suspicion of money laundering offences. He answered no comment to all questions put to him and was charged the same day. Following further enquiries, Huang was charged with an additional count of money laundering and one count of bribery on 9 November 2020. Detective Constable Ray Black, the investigating officer from the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit, said: “This has been a long and complex investigation, which saw officers working around the clock for more than two and a half years to bring Huang and Morgan-Findlay to justice. I’d also like to thank our partners at the Cyber Defence Alliance for bringing this to our attention and providing us with a comprehensive evidential package, which allowed us to kick-start our investigation. “Huang and Morgan-Findlay made their living off the misery of others. While there’s no evidence to suggest they directly defrauded the victims themselves, they clearly played a key role in this organised crime network. “Money laundering is often glamorised in popular media, and can be thought of as a victimless crime, however every pound involved has been taken from an innocent member of the public and it has a significant impact on their lives.” Steven Wilson, CEO of the Cyber Defence Alliance, said: “The CDA, working with our member banks, were able to identify significant criminal activity of an organised crime network who were fraudulently obtaining large amounts of money from UK customers. “We supplied our partners in the Met with actionable intelligence and through complex enquiries, they were able to identify a group of highly active fraudsters who were stealing millions of pounds from unsuspecting members of the public. These convictions illustrate the importance of industry and law enforcement working together to protect the UK public.” Source Comments are closed.
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