Wilkins also interacted with someone allegedly named Daniel Getting who described himself as Michael’s boss. Michael sent Wilkins money and Wilkins converted it into Bitcoin - a digital currency that’s a favorite by hackers because it is hard to trace - and sent it back. Through Instagram, Wilkins said he met a Dubai man named “ Michael” and he helped Michael with “foreign currency trading,” the complaint said.
Wilkins said he didn’t know where the money originally came from but admitted he “had been laundering money for a criminal organization, the Nigerians, for some time,” according to the complaint. Secret Service special agents, who investigate cyber and financial crimes, interviewed Wilkins on July 30 in Indiana. The seller contacted the closing agent to figure out what happened, and that’s what alerted the title company of the fraud.Īuthorities said the closing agent had wired the money to an account that actually belonged to Jevontae Wilkins of Indianapolis. Two weeks later, the seller learned he hadn’t paid the mortgage that month. The closing agent eventually sent $160,342 to a JPMorgan Chase bank account as he was told to pay off the mortgage loan. The “seller” asked for a copy of the payoff statement and then pointed out a “minor mistake.” The agent later received a fake document from the “lender” with new instructions to wire the money to a different account. Fraudsters had spoofed the seller’s email, according to the federal complaint. He quickly got a response in his inbox one minute later from someone who he thought was the seller. The title company’s closing agent emailed the property seller to get documents from the seller’s ex-wife to finish the deal. The title company’s client sold property and $160,342 was supposed to be paid at closing to the mortgage holder, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. The federal complaint doesn’t name the Florida title company but does detail how the scheme unfolded after the title company got emails and documents that seemed authentic. A Winter Park title company fell victim to an email scam this summer and unwittingly paid $160,000 for a mortgage that ended up in the bank account of a Midwesterner with ties to overseas criminal enterprises, according to federal court documents.
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