Connecticut man pleads guilty to nine counts of fraud and money laundering

Date: Aug. 13, 2024

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BOSTON - A Thomaston, Conn. man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Springfield in connection with a scheme to obtain bank loans and money for projects in Saudi Arabia.

Hanibal Tayeh pleaded guilty to a superseding indictment with two counts of bank fraud, four counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering and one count of making a false bankruptcy declaration. U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni scheduled sentencing for Dec. 19, 2024. Tayeh was originally charged and arrested in July 2018.

In 2013 and 2014, Tayeh used fake documents and misrepresentations to obtain a $9.1 million loan package and later a $400,000 extension of credit from a bank. A number of the fake documents and misrepresentations pertained to a business venture Tayeh claimed to be pursuing in Saudi Arabia. Further, he financially defrauded an individual by making misrepresentations related to construction projects he claimed to be pursuing in Saudi Arabia. Tayeh then laundered the proceeds of his fraud schemes through payments made to third parties for his personal obligations. Additionally, Tayeh made a false statement during a bankruptcy proceeding when he denied knowledge of a fake letter of credit that he created.

The charge of bank fraud provides for a sentence of no greater than 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a $1 million fine. The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The charge of money laundering provides for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The charge of false bankruptcy declaration provides for a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS CI), Boston Field Office; and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher L. Morgan of the Springfield Branch Office is prosecuting the case.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.