'Sophisticated fraud' - Money mule jailed for laundering' nearly €200k

A Longford-based money mule has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for three counts of money laundering, which involved a total sum of more than €180,000.

Denis Kona, aged 24, who has an address at Dun Darrach, Dublin Road, Longford pleaded guilty at Longford Circuit Court to the offences, which occurred on three separate dates between November 4, 2020 and November 10, 2020.

State barrister Shane Geraghty BL, said the defendant was aged 20 at the time of the offending which occurred following 'business email compromise fraud'.

The court heard the case had been adjourned until January 10, 2023, however, Mr Kona left the jurisdiction and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.

The defendant was subsequently arrested on October 13, 2024 in Ireland, remanded in custody the following day and he entered a guilty plea on November 5, 2024.

The court heard the total amount involving Mr Kona that was laundered was €182,970.

Mr Geraghty led the evidence of Detective Garda Ciaran Ronan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau as he outlined a firm of solicitors in Dublin were the injured party.

Det Ronan stated the firm recouped some of the money they lost but they were initially defrauded out of more than €1 million in total, albeit the defendant was only involved in laundering a portion of that.

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Mr Geraghty said an account assistant for the company ordinarily assisted the financial controller with payments for suppliers and clients and there was a certain procedure at that firm for making payments.

"It's outlined in the book of evidence that when a solicitor is looking to send a payment to a client or a third party they would contact the payee over the phone to confirm the bank details and thereafter the solicitor would raise what is known as a requisition (or request) for payment through a legal system called Thread," Mr Geraghty said. "Thread then automatically sends an email to an address and its requisitions at the name of the solicitor and .ie and the account assistant in this case she is described as managing the inbox of the requisitions."

Mr Geraghty stated when the email with the requisitions was received the job of the account assistant was to confirm the details and check to ensure there were enough funds available to make the payment.

He said on November 10, 2020 the account assistant received a requisition from a solicitor through the Thread system for the large amount, the sum of €148,688 which was to be paid to a certain client's account.

"She confirmed those details and then she sent an email to the financial controller and ultimately what happened here was 'Business email compromise fraud', " Mr Geraghty added.

He said a genuine email was sent by the account assistant to the financial controller, which stated the amount and the bank IBAN number and outlined that the payment should be made that same day.

"Unfortunately it appears that the account assistant's email was compromised where somebody gained access to the email system and ultimately sent an email to the financial controller, but in that email were the account details of the accused man Mr Kona which ultimately led to the payment of the approximate €148,000 to him," Mr Geraghty added.

Garda Ronan explained that the genuine email sent by the account assistant to the financial controller was 'blocked' at 4.25pm and it was never received and then a new email was sent by the fraudsters at 4.50pm with the IBAN number and email address altered.

The court heard the money was then illegitimately transferred into Mr Kona's account.

Mr Geraghty stated the financial controller received a telephone call on November 11, 2020 from the Bank of Ireland fraud department to query two payments and she was advised to contact the clients to check if they had received the funds.

"She ultimately rang the account assistant and discovered that there was a fraud act being perpetrated," Mr Geraghty said. "It appears to be an extremely sophisticated business email compromise fraud."

The court heard the sum of just over €148,000 was transferred into Mr Kona's account.

Det Ronan said on January 19, 2021 they received a number of exhibits in relation to Mr Kona's account from Andrew McGirr, a financial crime investigator at Bank of Ireland.

The copies of the documents included his 'identification form, identification passport, bank statements, transaction history, credit card payments, copy of banking 365 debit' payments.

The court heard Bank of Ireland were able to block Mr Kona's account and they were able to retrieve the €148,688 in full, which resulted in 'no financial loss'.

However, Mr Geraghty said the account was also in receipt of funds from a company in Sweden for €20,065 on November 4, 2020 and in addition €14,217 transferred to his account on November 5, 2020.

Mr Geraghty stated both of those payments were recalled by the remitting bank citing fraud "but unfortunately all of those funds were dissipated and that loss stands".

The court heard the same Swedish company was targeted and they were at a total loss of over €34,000.

Det Garda Ronan confirmed there were three ATM withdrawals at the Bank of Ireland Longford branch on November 4, November 5 and November 6, 2020 for €700 on each occasion.

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Gardaí obtained CCTV footage which showed the accused man, Mr Kona, withdrawing the funds on November 4, while the withdrawals on November 5 and November 6 were by an 'unidentified black male'.

Officers tracked down Mr Kona, a Czech national, and he was interviewed twice.

The defendant, who had been in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP, claimed he was intimidated and told Gardaí he was "scared and threatened" by two men.

Mr Kona told officers during two separate interviews the men had Jamaican and African accents and he made a total of €50 from his involvement.

Det Ronan agreed that Mr Kona had gained little financially and he showed no signs of wealth and he believed he was essentially a "money mule" in the operation.

Mr Kona had 20 previous convictions.

The court heard Mr Kona had pleaded guilty at an early stage and he has "some psychological challenges and deficits".

Judge Kenneth Connolly stated it was very serious offending and he was concerned this type of criminality was becoming more prevalent.

He believed the accused, a father of one, "saw an opportunity to make a quick buck" and got involved.

"The sums were significant. Mr Kona at worst may have been some sort of willing participant and at best he was under some sort of duress," Judge Connolly said. "But he certainly did not help himself either in his failure to report the matter possibly to the bank, certainly to An Garda Síochána and then in the mixed and different histories that he used to explain his offending, none of which sits comfortably with this court."

Judge Connolly noted €3,000 in cash bail had been provided to the court by Mr Kona and he directed that this should be offered to the Swedish company that suffered a loss.

He sentenced the defendant to three years to prison and he suspended the last 18 months for two years post-release on strict conditions.