A Costa Rican male surnamed Campos-Chanto (43) was sentenced to 97 months (about 8 years) in prison for his role in laundering over $2 million in proceeds of a number of wire fraud schemes, United States Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.


According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey, Campos entered illegally in the United States and was living in the city of  Trenton.


He previously pleaded guilty before U.S.  District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Judge Quraishi imposed sentence in Trenton federal court.


Documents filed in the case indicate that between August 2019 and October 2021, Chanto participated in a multimillion-dollar money laundering conspiracy operating out of Costa Rica that targeted elderly victims in the U.S.


Conspirators in Costa Rica called senior citizens in the U.S. over the phone and induced them to mail or wire money to Chanto by claiming that the victims needed to pay off taxes and fees on lottery winnings or taxes and penalties to the U.S. government.


 

In total, Chanto received more than $2 million from elderly victims who had been defrauded by Chanto’s co-conspirators.

Chanto then wired the majority of the funds to his co-conspirators in Costa Rica and retained approximately $400,000 for himself as payment for his money laundering services.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Quraishi sentenced Chanto to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution of $2.07 million.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, Newark Division, Trenton Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark, and special agents of the FBI, Cleveland Division, Youngstown Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gregory D. Nelsen, led the investigation.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander E. Ramey and Ashley Super Pitts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Trenton.

Recently, a Tico surnamed Hernandez-Hernandez (38) was sentenced in the U.S. to four years of incarceration and two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to drug conspiracy charges.

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