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June 24, 2020

Florida Woman Pled Guilty to Conspiracy to Launder Money

On April 24, 2020, in the Southern District of Florida, Jacquelyn Shafran pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder money. Shafran was initially charged in February 2020.

According to the court documents, from about April 2017 through about November 2017, Shafran, a resident of Broward County, Florida, conspired with others to launder money derived from a wire fraud scam. The wire fraud scam involved various individuals who called victims and pretended to be employees of various Government agencies. They falsely told victims that they owed back taxes with compounded interest and fees, or that their Social Security Number was used to perpetrate illegal activity and they needed to pay money to clear their name. The callers told the victims that if they did not make immediate payments they would be arrested.

As part of the conspiracy, Shafran provided her bank account information to receive funds from victims of the schemes, in exchange for a percentage of the deposited money. In addition, Shafran recruited others in the South Florida area to open multiple bank accounts, in order to receive money that she knew was derived from criminal activity. In exchange for recruiting others to open bank accounts, Shafran also received a percentage of the tainted money deposited into their accounts.

Shafran and her coconspirators made sure to withdraw the stolen funds within hours of deposit by the victims. Shafran lied to law enforcement and told others to lie about the nature of the deposits, if questioned by bank employees. Despite one of her bank accounts being closed for fraud, and the bank accounts of those she recruited being closed for fraud as well, Shafran continued to recruit others and received money for their participation in the scheme.

Shafran faces a statutory maximum term of imprisonment of up to 20 years, followed by a term of supervised release of up to three years, and a court imposed fine of up to $500,000.00, or double the gross proceeds from the scheme.

    Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: S.D. Fla. Super. Infor., filed Feb. 20, 2020; S.D. Fla. Plea Agr., filed Apr. 24, 2020; and S.D. Fla. Factual Agr., filed Apr. 24, 2020.