LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Las Vegas man has been found guilty of multiple charges in connection with a multimillion dollar fraud and money laundering scheme.
Court documents state start in Feb. 2021, 51-year-old Martin Mizrahi began accepting cash from narcotics sales, which he laundered for people that were associated with a Mexican-based cartel. Investigators said Mizrahi converted the money into Bitcoin and then sent the money to anonymous cryptocurrency wallets, which were provided to him by co-conspirators.
In addition, Mizrahi laundered fraudulent proceeds sent to his company, LV.net, by wire transfer, which he also converted into cryptocurrency before sending to anonymous cryptocurrency wallets.
According to the Justice Department, those funds were obtained through a business email compromise scheme where a New York City-based nonprofit organization had more than $3 million stolen from them by hackers.
investigators said between February and June 2021, Mizrahi laundered more than $4 million in fraud and narcotics proceeds.
In addition to that scheme, the Justice Department said Mizrahi participated in a credit card fraud scheme where he ran nearly $8 million fake charges through his company. They said multiple credit cards were issued to third-parties, some of which had been stolen. They add Mizrahi prepared false invoices that he sent to banks and credit card companies to justify the charges.
After a 12-day trial, a jury found Mizrahi guilty of wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft, among other charges. Several of those charges carry maximum sentences of 30 years in prison.
When looking at federal court records, a sentencing date hasn't been set.
