Chicago Man Sentenced In Cyber Fraud Case

MOBILE, AL - Charles Boyd, age 28, of Chicago, IL was sentenced today to 33 months in prison for his role in a cyber fraud scheme known as a business e-mail compromise.

According to court documents filed in connection with Boyd's guilty plea, unknown co-conspirators gained unauthorized access to the e-mail account of a Spanish Fort, Alabama mortgage company in 2019. After gaining access, the conspirators were able to read the mortgage company's e-mails and, therefore, knew when buyers were expecting wiring instructions to complete real estate transactions. When a sale was near completion, co-conspirators sent the buyer a spoofed e-mail that appeared to come from the mortgage company. These e-mails contained wiring instructions supposedly for the completing of the real estate purchase. However, when the buyer followed the instructions in the e-mail, their money was unwittingly sent to bank accounts controlled by the conspirators.

Boyd's role in the conspiracy was to set up the bank accounts into which the buyers unwittingly wired the money. Specifically, during July and August 2019, Boyd opened multiple bank accounts using documents that purported to be passports issued by the governments of Sierra Leone and the Gambia. These documents contained Boyd's picture along with alias names and identifiers. Accounts set up by Boyd with these fraudulent documents received over $400,000 from real estate purchasers who were victimized by this scheme, including victims in the Southern District of Alabama.

Boyd is currently serving an 18-month sentence for a separate financial fraud scheme in Wisconsin. Once that sentence is complete, Boyd will begin serving his 33-month sentence in this case.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Bodnar and Marjorie Vincent-Tripp prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.