A California man and his brother-in-law admitted Wednesday that they were part of a conspiracy to rip off elderly people in Pittsburgh and across the U.S. by enticing them through pop-up messages on computers to transfer money to their control.
One victim in the Pittsburgh region lost $1.2 million to the thieves, who will be sentenced in January.
Thien Phuc Tran, 33, and Ton Huynh Bui, 30, who both live in Santa Ana, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money following an indictment handed up last year in U.S. District Court after an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, which handles financial fraud cases.
Prosecutors said the two were part of a “wide-ranging criminal conspiracy” to defraud victims and launder the proceeds. Tran and Bui were part of the money-laundering side of the scheme.
The fraud operation ran from December 2020 to December 2021. Agents said criminals contacted older people online through pop-up messages that appeared to be from reputable tech companies, such as Microsoft, and said the victims’ accounts had been compromised and that they needed to move their money.
The victims were directed to call a number that was connected to call centers in India. Conspirators in the call centers told victims that their identity had been compromised and convinced them to send their money to an account that Tran and Bui set up and controlled using stolen personal data.
Agents said Tran and Bui were also involved in converting the stolen money into cryptocurrency and moving funds through multiple bank accounts to hide what they were doing.
The U.S. attorney’s office said one victim in the Pittsburgh area liquidated $1,288,073 in retirement savings as a result of the fraud.
As part of his plea, Tran admitted to helping launder $4.2 million. Bui admitted to laundering $194,000.
Prosecutors had previously filed notice that they intend to forfeit property seized from the conspirators, including real estate in California, gold bars and coins, jewelry, a Toyota Tacoma and a Toyota Sienna, gift cards, prepaid credit cards and cash.
U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan said he would sentence Tran and Bui on Jan. 24. Both face years in federal prison.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
