Kenyan Woman Who Scammed States Gets 3 Years

A Kenyan woman who did most of the legwork in an international scam that targeted $3.34 million from several state governments, including West Virginia, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to three years in prison.

In December, Angella Chegge-Kraszeski, 34, of Raleigh, N.C., pleaded guilty to money laundering as part of a scheme that rerouted a $919,916 payment from West Virginia intended for a legitimate vendor in March 2009.

With the help of five other Kenyan nationals living in Minnesota, Chegge-Kraszeski wired more than $772,000 bank accounts in Kenya. Authorities caught on to the scam before other money could be diverted to offshore accounts.

Following instructions from as-yet unidentified handlers in Kenya, Chegge-Kraszeski set up dummy corporations and bank accounts with names very similar to real vendors for state governments. She then wrote to the governments and asked them to stop sending checks to the real vendors, and make electronic deposits directly into the fake bank accounts.

"It is fair to say that you were the face of the conspiracy in the United States, at least so far as it was successful," U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. told her.

Chegge-Kraszeski had faced a prison term more than twice as long for her role in the scheme, but Copenhaver took her cooperation with investigators into consideration.

Without information provided by Chegge-Kraszeski, her five co-conspirators in Minnesota could not have been prosecuted, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Robinson.

All five of the co-conspirators received prison sentences from Copenhaver within the last two weeks. All of the defendants face likely deportation once they have served their prison terms.

Source: http://wvgazette.com/News/201008310533

Related Arrtcicle: http://www.mwakilishi.com/content/articles/2010/08/27/two-more-kenyans-s...