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The indictment says very little about the underlying crime schemes. (I understand indictments usually don't say and don't need to say very much). - "The prepai

The indictment says very little about the underlying crime schemes. (I understand indictments usually don't say and don't need to say very much). - "The prepaid debit cards were issued by different debit card companies and loaded with U.S. dollars that had been unlawfully obtained through various frauds (i.e. , the crime proceeds). For example, certain of the prepaid debit cards were loaded with fraudulently procured unemployment insurance benefits obtained using stolen personal identification information of U.S. residents." (page 4)

eli 2y ago
That seems clear to me. They used stolen identity information to make false unemployment insurance claims in other people’s names. The CFO bought the prepaid cards at a discount and then transferred the whole amount to the company account. Maybe there’s more to it but it doesn’t sound like it was very sophisticated and seems inevitable they would be caught eventually.
- 0110101001 2y ago
  > They used stolen identity information to make false unemployment insurance claims in other people’s names. I don't think "they," meaning Epoch Times, did the actual identity theft / unemployment insurance fraud. The indictment says they "purchased" the debit cards, and there are no charges related to those crimes. It sounds like Epoch Times found a platform where such fraudsters were offloading their phony unemployment debit cards at a discount (this started in 2020, when I presume there was a huge boom in unemployment fraud) and tried to flip them around as legitimate donations and subscription revenue for an easy profit.
  - ajross 2y ago
    > It sounds like Epoch Times found a platform where such fraudsters were offloading their phony unemployment debit cards at a discount [...] and tried to flip them around as legitimate donations and subscription revenue for an easy profit. Just to be clear, since the framing here doesn't make it clear if you understand: that is textbook money laundering. "I didn't know where the money on these cards came from I was just buying them as a product" is not remotely a defense. AML/KYC laws apply to all financial transactions, not just to banks, and yes, "buying millions of dollars of pre-paid debit cards for real money" is quite clealy a "financial" transaction.

eli 2y ago

That seems clear to me. They used stolen identity information to make false unemployment insurance claims in other people’s names. The CFO bought the prepaid cards at a discount and then transferred the whole amount to the company account. Maybe there’s more to it but it doesn’t sound like it was very sophisticated and seems inevitable they would be caught eventually.

0110101001 2y ago
> They used stolen identity information to make false unemployment insurance claims in other people’s names. I don't think "they," meaning Epoch Times, did the actual identity theft / unemployment insurance fraud. The indictment says they "purchased" the debit cards, and there are no charges related to those crimes. It sounds like Epoch Times found a platform where such fraudsters were offloading their phony unemployment debit cards at a discount (this started in 2020, when I presume there was a huge boom in unemployment fraud) and tried to flip them around as legitimate donations and subscription revenue for an easy profit.
- ajross 2y ago
  > It sounds like Epoch Times found a platform where such fraudsters were offloading their phony unemployment debit cards at a discount [...] and tried to flip them around as legitimate donations and subscription revenue for an easy profit. Just to be clear, since the framing here doesn't make it clear if you understand: that is textbook money laundering. "I didn't know where the money on these cards came from I was just buying them as a product" is not remotely a defense. AML/KYC laws apply to all financial transactions, not just to banks, and yes, "buying millions of dollars of pre-paid debit cards for real money" is quite clealy a "financial" transaction.